Saturday, September 18, 2010

BOE tables turf

The MRJs Jesse Buchanan reports on the BOEs turf vote:

Some Board of Education members still have unanswered questions about the Cheshire High School artificial turf project and a motion to forward it to the Town Council was tabled Thursday.

Remaining questions, such as how the field's replacement will be funded, will be discussed at an upcoming board planning committee meeting.

"There were more questions than answers," said board member Tony Perugini of the turf project.


Thank you Tony for asking questions.

Tim White

11 comments:

Tony Perugini said...

The vote Thursday night was a bit premature and I think Alan Sobol summed it up best by asking "Why are we rushing this?" and something to the effect of "Just because the turf committee is anxious to get this going doesn't mean we have to sacrifice our due diligence." You'll have to watch it on TV it was an interesting meeting and I think the chairman's comments at the end of the meeting...says it all about the mentality, of some, behind this project. If there were any politics in action Thursday night...it was the chairman's comments at the end of the meeting.

There WILL be a turf vote at the 10/21 BOE Business Meeting and there will be public input. A project as costly and as controversial as Turf requires input from the public. And our (BOE) discussion on this must be transparent and open. All details must be presented to the public. Period. That's the fair thing to do especially since this project wasn't voted on via referendum.

I believe we're 90% complete with our due diligence. The BOE Planning committee is meeting 7pm Monday night at the Humiston board room. The topic is turf...funding strategies both short and long-term as well as what the BOE can legally implement (if it chooses to) a reserve account for long-term replacement costs.

I've been accused by a few on the BOE/Administration of being politically motivated with my comments Thurs night. However, when I have administrators and former BOE members trying to tell me that $46K/year is cheaper than $16/yr...it's not about politics, it's about common sense. I know there's a perception that our math curriculum can be improved and based on the math from some ( $46K < $16K ) I think we do have a problem.

I want to get Turf behind us and focus on more important priorities such as assessing the math curriculum (once and for all) and implementing curriculum/personnel changes to improve it where applicable but the curriculum committee hasn't been willing to put this on an agenda, yet. Imagine what could be accomplished if the same amount of time, resource and energy was put towards the math curriculum as it has been focused on Turf? Priorities.

Other news from Thurs night is that Peter Massey announced his resignation from the BOE effective 10/7. Peter is undergoing his post-graduate work at Yale and it's taken over whatever spare time he had. He's been a great colleague and he will be missed. No word yet on a replacement although I anticipate that the DTC will announce a candidate very soon, certainly in time for the 10/21 turf vote.

- Tony

tim white said...

focus on more important priorities such as assessing the math curriculum (once and for all) and implementing curriculum/personnel changes to improve it where applicable but the curriculum committee hasn't been willing to put this on an agenda, yet.

It took me at least a year to realize that I had the proverbial "seat at the table." As a voter, I remind you that you have a seat at the BOE table. If others -- R or D -- refuse to bring an issue forward, then make a motion to discuss it. And let others -- R or D -- openly oppose it. My guess is that there are BOE members who are comfortable letting stuff get ignored, hoping it will die. But that's the value of having a seat at the table. You can force people to raise their hands on a particular issue. If it were me, I'd push for action privately. But after I determine there's too much private resistance, I bring it public by way of a motion.

This is exactly what happened with town take-home vehicles. People didn't want to talk about it, so I brought it to a motion.

I recall Chairman Hall saying that the Council shouldn't have to vote to direct the TM to provide information, but I knew that was the only way to get the information.

tim white said...

Peter Massey announced his resignation from the BOE effective 10/7.

hmmm... who is an "experienced" BOE Dem??

Btw, I thank Peter Massey for his service. I disagreed with him at times... sometimes strongly. But he tried and I thank him.

Tony Perugini said...

"hmmm... who is an "experienced" BOE Dem??"

My initial thoughts are Cathy Hellreich and Bob Behrer. Obviously both are qualified and capable. Personally, I'd like to see a fresh face on the BOE...someone that's not afraid to ask the tough questions and challenge the status quo.

Time will tell.

Thx
- Tony

Anonymous said...

They were voted out. New faces is the way to go.

Anonymous said...

I agree a new face is the way to go but finding one who is not afraid to ask the tough questions and challenge the status quo, like Tony says, is going to be near to impossible.

tim white said...

his/her first meeting (10/21) will include a vote on turf.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he or she should abstain from the vote since they weren't around for any of the meetings where it was discussed.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the board should ask or discuss this info from EHHI that was released after their review of the most recent safety studies. Seems there are still health issues to be concerned with.

http://www.ehhi.org/turf/turf_pr_0810.shtml

Anonymous said...

The most tell tale quote in that article is this:

Dr. D. Barry Boyd, Oncologist at the Greenwich Hospital and the Yale Cancer Center, said,"While fear of raising concerns may be an understandable motive for limiting public information about risk, the long recognized goal of limiting childhood exposures to environmental hazards must take precedent. Because artificial turf playing fields are disproportionately used by children and adolescents, these childhood exposures to environmental carcinogens may add to lifelong risk of cancer as well as the exposures to the many respiratory irritants and toxicants found off-gassing from these fields."
So the question is, how much do you want to expose your children to?

Tony--Has anyone from the BOE checked with the people who maintain the turf fields in Hamden, West Haven, or Guilford to confirmthe true maintenance costs of the fields and to see what the life expectancy's are now that they have it installed?
I am sure it is a simple question for them to answer. I believe West Haven just replaced theirs after 8 years(so much for 10-12 years.

It would just make sense to find out from these towns if what the Turf Committee is saying in regards to maintenance is accurate.(include costs of equipment)

Breachway said...

Check out the new turf field at New London High School....they are having drainage problems and can't use the new field....interesting..I think the company used the wrong materials..