BCSD Renovation Project Forum
November 27, 2009 by eastwickpress · 2 Comments
by Andrew Zlotnick
At a much better attended meeting at the Berlin Elementary School on Tuesday night than the last meeting on November 16, the residents of the Berlin School District heard a more thorough presentation by the school administration detailing the proposed $19,705 million building project. CS Arch, the architectural firm hired by the District, presented some overviews and details of the $19,705 million dollar building project. Berney Donegan of BPD Inc. explained in length the financial model for bonding and funding the project.
Once the presentations were concluded the floor was opened to question and occasional comments. One by one interested community members voiced their concerns and opinions. Members of the audience at times became excited and somewhat loud as they made point after point concerning the scope and cost of the building project. One community member said, “We aren’t against repairing the building for health and safety, we just want all the other extravagant expenses separated out.” Concerns were raised about future costs, about the lack of maintenance in the past throughout the District and about the cost of this project depleting funds for needed instructional programs. Another community member stated, “It would seem that we have been approving school budgets over the years and very little of my taxes were spent on maintenance.” Another echoed those statements and added, “It would seem that a lot of the work required could and should be done by maintenance staff.” Another said, “I’ll paint the building myself; the costs are ridiculous.”
These comments were met by sharp criticism from the committee persons on the panel charged with advising the District on this project. One young mother stood up nervously and spoke of her decision to send her kindergartner to Berlin over Grafton. This mother said that although her mother, a kindergarten teacher in Grafton, was sickened while working in the Berlin school, she felt it was a good school for her youngster and “he’s doing well there.” She also said that her mother was doing much better after she moved out of the Berlin Elementary School to Grafton.
Comments about District unity and the need to work together were made, and then the audience started to snipe at each other. Many, but not all, were sure of one thing that the school taxes are going to go up and that they can’t afford higher taxes.
The next chance for members of the public to air their concerns about the project will be at a public hearing on December 1 at 7 pm in the Jr./Sr. High School in Cherry Plain.
WOW! What an unbiased article! (INSERT SARCASM HERE). It’s amazing that The Eastwick Press would allow his to be entered as an article rather than a letter to the editor since it doesn’t seem to be from a normal reporter, rather one of the people that is against this referendum the most. What Mr. Zlotnick fails to mention is that he is on the committee that recommended this to the board, but rather than sit in front of everyone else on the committee at the tables, he sits in the audience, arguing points that could not sway these community members in their meetings. It seems like he never had any intention of looking into what’s best for the school district while serving on this committee, rather he was just trying to stop what many others think is best.
As for the meeting, Mr. Zlotnick brings up the community members who offered to paint the school themselves, or it should be done by the maintenance staff. They were not met with “sharp criticism” but were rather told by the committee that the paint contains lead and can not be done by the district staff, even if they “wear masks” as the community member suggested. That isn’t criticism Mr. Zlotnick, thats common sense and the LAW. The only time the committee members were sharp at all was in the final minute of the meeting when one community member continuously misquoted facts while trying to make a point, even after he was corrected nicely three times by several people. The committee members were extremely nice and gracious, even when one person went on a tirade for several minutes at the top of his lungs.
As for the “extravagant expenses” in this referendum, the parking lot seemed to be the biggest concern voiced at the meeting. I don’t think many people truly understand WHY the parking lot configuration must be fixed. At this time all the students must walk across a dangerous parking lot/driveway to go to and from recess and physical education class. All that protects them from cars is a thin rope…nothing that would actually stop a vehicle from harming them. The new plan will eliminate that back parking lot/driveway and create one at the end of the school building. With this plan the young children will not have to be placed in harms way every time they go outside for recess or class.
Misinformation is hurting everyone in this district and needs to stop. People need to look at what is on paper and use their common sense. The person who stood at the beginning of the meeting and demanded to know why the installation of an elevator would eliminate classrooms would not even look at the large blueprint placed in front of him to show him that it WAS NOT taking out two classrooms. Instead he opted to pick up his jacket and walk out of the meeting while the committee tried to answer his question. Behavior like that doesn’t help anyone! Remember, the children and people of this school district deserve the best, and yet we have people arguing that they don’t even deserve the basics. Voting this referendum down to try to keep the other elementary schools open is not right, and it won’t work. The board has already voted to close them, and this won’t stop that.
Yes 820 No 204
Who speaks for the community at large, the person who was the in majority the committee or the person who stands with the majority of voters? No votes 820 Yes votes 204? You all need to look inside of your selves to see what is it that drives you to think that this is not a Democracy and that opposing voices have to be right or wrong. We’ve voted on this plan and it’s dead! Now let’s start a new process. Lets not have the same old faces, Ideas and policies or try to make a new version of what we just saw put forth. We need a new group of community members who are willing to work to find a solution. Let’s have a new group / committee formed and try to find people who don’t directly benefit from the School District this time.
As for what the Eastwick chooses to print (or not print) I think that they were more than fair to all opinions and groups as they allowed the “Children First Group” a chance to rebut the information in the opposing add this week. I will continue to send in articles and Letters from meetings that I attend if you wish to present another point of view feel free. I sat with the audience at the end to show that I did not vote for this plan nor did any other member of the committee as proof all you would have to do is show me the minutes from any meeting that I attended that includes any mention of voting. That would be impossible as there were no notes or minutes takes and we never voted on anything.