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To the Board of Selectmen, Town Council and Board of Finance:
What has made our school district so successful is that our community has supported the education of the whole child. It was an understanding that our children find their own paths to personal growth by excelling in academics, sports, theater, art, music, foreign language, STEM programming, etc. This concept of the whole child is especially important in the middle school years, which tend to be challenging. All these efforts have allowed New Canaan Public Schools to be recognized as shining examples of best practices. Families continue to move to New Canaan because of the excellent schools and our wonderful community.
Dear Editor:
As New Canaan taxpayers, we are requesting that the candidates for office make their stance on the Saxe expansion known prior to Election Day. In the absence of a formal debate by the first selectman candidates and because the Board of Finance has delayed the formal vote on the issue until after the election, we believe that the voters have the right to know where each candidate stands on this critical issue prior to Nov. 3. We are requesting a simple yes or no answer to the following question: Will you support the full project* to renovate and expand Saxe Middle School? We are asking that each candidate for First Selectman, Selectman, Town Council and Board of Education make their response known to the New Canaanite by Oct.
As a parent of two children at West School after having recently relocated from Manhattan, my wife and I are very focused on the Saxe Middle School expansion not only for the future of the New Canaan school system, but also for the appeal of New Canaan to new families. We would not have moved to New Canaan but for the strength of the public schools. The Saxe project has been well researched by the Building Committee and has been thoroughly vetted with multiple alternatives considered. The recommended expansion is logical, cost effective (relative to only renovating the auditorium and enlarging the school at a later date) and imperative for the future of Saxe and the town. The recommendation is not a “Cadillac expansion” but only meets “most” of the school’s needs.
New Canaan cannot sustain recent spending rates and, as the town addresses major capital needs such as at Saxe Middle School, hard decisions must be made lest the town burden taxpayers unduly or completely drain its coffers, a member of the Board of Finance said Tuesday. The educational system in New Canaan “did a fabulous job of educating my daughter and could not be more supportive,” finance board member George Blauvelt said during the group’s special meeting at Town Hall, “but we are looking at a series of really tough tradeoffs.”
“If we go forward with the Saxe program as currently proposed, then what in the town don’t we do? What will other constituents in the town—who are also residents in the town and taxpayers in the town—what don’t they get if we go forward with this?”
The comments come as a Board of Education-backed proposal to build a 2-story, 12-classroom addition at Saxe while renovating the auditorium and expanding music rooms—last estimated at about $17.1 million, though an updated figure is expected—makes its way to the finance board and other town bodies for approval. Board of Finance members stopped short of rejecting the full proposal, though more than one of them echoed Blauvelt that further study and discussion is needed—such as around enrollment projections—before funds are committed beyond renovating the Saxe auditorium (widely accepted as an absolute need). First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, who serves as the finance board’s chairman, framed the discussion as a way to share the group’s thinking with Board of Ed members—some of whom were in attendance, in addition to the superintendent of schools.