What matters most to residents?
Hear it straight from them.
“In my 4th grade year, there was a school-wide power outage and they had to send us all home.”
Lenora is a 7th grader who went to elementary school at Hanmer. She knows firsthand the issues facing these old schools and wants better for her peers. During public comment at a Town Council meeting, Lenora described being cold in her classroom when the heat was broken, hearing kindergarteners cry when the power went out leaving them in the dark, and having to evacuate with the rest of her classmates when there was a fire in the building.
“I think the concerns about inconveniences and traffic pale in comparison to doing what’s in the best interest of our students and teachers.”
Zack is an Old Wethersfield resident who spoke during public comment at a recent Town Council meeting in support of the plan for the elementary schools, no matter where the swing school goes. As someone who uses the green space around his neighborhood every day, he knows there will be inconveniences during construction, and yet he still hopes the referendum is fully supported and that we can come together as a town to work as quickly as possible to get new schools for our community.
“Our schools are all used up.”
Bobbie Hughes Granato, Board of Ed Chair, spoke at a recent
Town Council meeting and repeated a powerful refrain throughout her comment: our Wethersfield elementary schools are all used up. She talked about her family coming to help break down her classroom at the end of the school year. They would look around and say “What happened here?!” Bobbie would reply: “Learning.” Think about 20 something children in a classroom every day for an entire school year. Now think about decades and decades of school years. Our elementary schools have served generations of students and now they have simply been used up.
“Nothing that affects my
family personally outweighs
the greater good.”
Two of Jennifer’s three children will have to deal with significant changes during their school years while renovations are completed. Her youngest will likely be in three different buildings before 3rd grade, and six buildings total before she graduates as a senior. That’s a lot of transition for anyone to go through and not what she pictured for her daughter.
Still she urges voters to consider the “greater good” and do what’s needed for our students because she believes the positives at the end outweigh the challenges to get there. Even knowing the impact on her own children will not be small, she will vote YES in September.
“As both a parent and a teacher of 27 years, I am most excited about the 5th and 6th academy.”
Leigh has taught general and special education in both public elementary and middle schools. In her 27 years of experience, 5th and 6th graders really benefit from specialized curriculum, especially in the areas of executive functioning skills, time management, task initiation, and long-term planning and organization. She’s really looking forward to the opportunity presented by this plan to design for the unique needs of this age group.