The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Online forum pushes school construction project
Residents to vote Nov. 3 on $156 million proposal
TORRINGTON — A citizens group calling itself “Vote Yes New School Bright Future” held a public forum to help residents understand the upcoming vote on the city’s school construction plan.
The forum was led by Tim Gaffney, owner of Litchfield County Sports, who introduced speakers promoting the project, while attendees on the Tuesday Zoom forum wrote questions.
“Vote Yes” can be found at www.facebook.com/voteyesnewschool and voteyesnewschool.com. On Facebook, members post information about programs that could enhance students’ education as well as their future, such as the high school’s Education Pathways program, which provides career experience using local businesses, individuals and faculty members, and enhanced STEM opportunities such as robotics and manufacturing. The website provides a page for questions, an overview of the aging building and its many areas in need of repair or renovation, and the opportunities it says a new build-
ing could provide.
The project
Torrington voters on Election Day will be asked to approve the $156 million project. The project would include razing the old high school and replacing it with a combined middle and high school building for grades
6-12. Middle school and high school students would be housed in their own wing, with some shared spaces. The project also would relocate the school district’s central administrative offices, now housed in an old school building on Migeon Avenue, to the new facility in its own wing. Athletic fields would be improved. The new school would have a shared gym and theater.
The Board of Education
and school administration held an online forum in September to explain the project, taking questions from residents who mostly asked about the project’s tax impact and whether renovating the old building was a better idea.
If the Nov. 3 referendum were to fail, school board Chairman Fiona Cappabianca said, the district will have to begin renovating and repairing the existing high
school, which was built in the 1960s. Areas of repair include heating, plumbing and electrical systems, windows and ceilings, restrooms and flooring throughout the building. Many of the costs to renovate the school would not be reimbursed by the state, according to Kastle Boos, the architectural firm hired by the district to create preliminary designs and help with the district’s state
funding applications.
The tax impact on a homeowner was outlined again, as it was during the school board’s forum in September. “If a home valued at $125,000 has an assessed value of $87,500, or 70 percent, the average tax impact would be $143 per year, starting in 2022-23,” according to the school board.
Getting the word out
Parent Jeff Putnam, who with other parents and residents founded the “Vote Yes New School Bright Future” group, was happy with the results of Tuesday night’s forum, but is worried about reaching more people.
“Our peak participation last night was about 40 people, and that was great, but we need to reach many more,” he said. “We hear people say they have complaints and questions, but when we hold these meetings, they don’t show up.
“We want ‘yes’ votes, but we also want educated votes, even if it’s ‘no,’” Putnam said. “If a person votes no, that’s fine, but we want to get the information out there. The worst voter is the one who doesn’t know what’s on the ballot, and why they’re voting for it.”
Social media, Putnam said, has been extremely helpful in getting people involved to promote the school project referendum, but showing the high school building’s flaws is a problem.
“We’ve had a lot of success with social media, and we’re reaching more people, but COVID-19 is killing us,” he said. “An open house at the high school would solve it. It would answer all those questiosn people are asking. Getting people inside the building, and seeing it through the eyes of a student, would be so meaningful to the public.”
Putnam is also concerned about getting the senior citizen population of Torrington behind the project. “We can’t reach the seniors,” he said. “It’s hard to reach them. We can’t go to the senior center, because events just aren’t happening there, where we could get together and talk to them about the project. So that’s very frustrating.”
“Vote Yes” is planning an additional public forum Oct. 29, at a location to be announced. “Because we’re now in Phase 3 of the pandemic (allowing larger gatherings), we’re looking for an alternate location to hold (the next forum),” he said. “Right now we’re doing a second mailer, which should come to people by the end of next week, to build on the ideas behind the project and give people more information.”
The group is also putting videos on the website that will explain the impact of the project’s cost on the city tax rate. “We keep asking for questions, and if we get a lot of the same ones, we’ll do a segment on it online,” Putnam said. “If we can get people to take 30 seconds to stop and learn about the project, they’ll know the real story.”
The group is also calling people to encourage them to vote for a new high school. “We’re taking sections of the city voter list,” Putnam said. “They may or may not have kids in the system, and if they don’t, we can talk to them about it. We just want to reach out to as many voters as we can.”
Speakers want new school
One of Tuesday night’s speakers was THS graduate Tom Killackey, who earned music scholarships and is pursuing his studies in music after a successful four years at the high school, playing the trumpet. He said his experience and support at THS made a huge difference in his opportunities.
“That wouldn’t have been possible without the staff and my teachers,” Killackey said. “The faculty at THS, in the case of studying the arts, where my experience was centered, was the best. Torrington High School has been awarded for music education for 20 years in a row, more than any school in Connecticut, and I experienced that firsthand.”
He pointed to the high school’s small performance spaces as an example of what a new building could offer students. “I’m looking forward to what THS can offer incoming students, future students, in a new school,” Killackey said. “I can only imagine what could happen with a superior school.”
Members of the “Vote Yes” group also focused on the high school’s Career Pathways program, which provides students with opportunities to learn about career opportunities in health care, criminal justice, public safety, business, applied arts and education, as well as STEM-related careers in science and manufacturing. The new high school could provide more space for that program with laboratories and other teaching spaces, while using the expertise from local businesses and faculty who are “ready, willing and able” to expand Career Pathways for all students.
Superintendent Susan Lubomski said there were many teachers who are enthusiastic about offering career classes. “But we need a facility that will enable us to do this. If (a student wants) to go into biomedicine, we need a lab that will teach students,” she said. “If they’re interested in manufacturing, we need labs where they can practice those skills.
“I’ve said all along that the high school can be the hub of the community,” Lubomski said. “Students can have their passions and their dreams realized.”
Another speaker was longtime resident and Torrington High School graduate Marie Soliani, who said the project was “a very long time coming.”
“Future students deserve a brand-new school,” she said. “A new high school affords us an opportunity to improve education for our students. For years, many buildings in Torrington haven’t been maintained or repaired, because we’ve tried to keep the mill rate down. But it’s like taking care of your home — if you don’t keep up with it, it will get beyond you. Instead of losing students, students will come to Torrington because we have a better school.
“The old school is financially draining,” she said. “Torrington gets caught in its own apron strings sometimes, saying, ‘We don’t have to move forward.’ I say, yes we do. I am firmly behind this.”
City Council member Sharon Waagner answered a resident’s question about how the new school would attract people to Torrington. “Our new school will be a draw for future homebuyers as well as investors,” she said. “That in turn will increase the number of taxpayers and the costs will be shared more broadly, possibly even lowering the rate in the future. The budget issues and mill rate level is primarily a result of losing major taxpayers such as the Torrington Company and other major employers.
“Realtors will tell you that having the new school and offerings for our children, are a big selling point to parents and those planning a family,” she said. “We will also have the ability to keep more of our students in-house and save on tuition costs.”
Cappabianca spoke about the school board’s responsibilities. “The one thing the school board hears is that we need to be more fiscally responsible, and we’ve worked for years to find cost savings for Torrington,” she said. “Trying to do the same thing we’ve always done, and expecting a different result, is not going to work in the future. We need to provide better programs and have a better return on our investment. If the referendum doesn’t pass, we need to start maintaining the high school.”
She also addressed a suggestion that Torrington build a 9-12 high school instead. “I don’t recommend going to referendum for a 9-12 high school,” she said. “It makes no sense. It’s not a better opportunity. I ask the Torrington taxpayers: What is it that you want? If you want to find a model that’s sustainable, this is the model we should be supporting.”