After voting 6-1 to endorse again its recommendations, Team seeks to disband (Sept. 14, 2001)...
THE SELECT TEAM:  Recommendation made June 7, 2001 at the Board of Selectmen - new 3-4-5 school and renovations to Weston High School "sketch plan" for the Summer of 2001 with a referendum on whole $$ in the Fall.

FORMED IN JANUARY,REPORTING SOON...
New Committee on School Planning formed; Joint Meeting with School Building Committee, Board of Education May 9:

The Joint Meeting of the 3 committees/Boards involved in planning for new schools took place in the Meeting Room at Town Hall (shown above).
If you thought O.R&L's $70 million plan was too much, please hold on to your hat (s):  the Fletcher-Thompson version, before eliminating any optional items, is $124 million NET cost for the plan that includes a new 3-4-5 school on campus.  The renovation-only solution (no new 3-4-5 or any other kind of new school) is less--only $119 million NET cost.  A list of "Potential Cost Reductions" was offered (with no price tags) for both Scenario 1 and Scenario 3.  Selectman Woody Bliss opened the meeting (First Selectman Hal Shupack had a previous engagement).

To build or not to build, that is not the question.  Everyone, we think, now agrees that some building must take place on School Road.  From the early meeting, described below, to the most recent Joint Meeting of School Building Committee, Board of Education and the Select Team, Westonites are at work trying to come up with "the number" that is right for education and that the Town of Weston can afford.  The architects and construction managers explained in an overview presentation May 9 what work needed to be done for two options (new 3-4-5 or just renovations), with details available.  These are to be reviewed by school staff ASAP.  Drama is king.

One of the classic lines from one of the greatest movies of all time, CASABLANCA, was "...round up the usual suspects." That's what we had at the first meeting of those interested in forming "a select team for school construction."  This past December 16, on a Saturday morning at 8am in the Town Hall Meeting Room the "suspects" gathered.  Once again, the community is going into planning mode.  Over the weekend, this first open discussion since last May 2000 (the Fuss&O'Neill sewer meeting at Weston High School's PACKED auditorium) on the subject of school construction took place.  In Weston, Saturday mornings at 8am is the traditional time for school facilities planning.  We start this new round in the winter with September 1, 2003 as the deadline for moving into a new facility of some kind, somewhere in Weston. Now it is May and that goal is no longer in sight.  We are also without a Superintendent of Schools.


First Selectman Hal Shupack opened the December 2000 meeting by saying "...it is time to move forward" and bring on an architect to design a lower middle school to house the third, fourth and fifth grades.  Selectman Emil Frankel pointed out that we need to define the program before rushing to construction and Selectman Woody Bliss reminded the crowd that there were other features of the overall school plan on the table that could move forward simultaniously.  Assuming a happy solution to the septic disposal problem, we still need to become "multi-taskers."  We must work on more than one problem and alternative solutions all at once.  Action is the name of the game.

WHO'S WHO IN WESTON
In attendance and with representatives standing to speak were all members of the Boards of Selectmen, Education, and a quorum of the Building Committee and the School Building Committee.  Richard Wolf, Chairman of the Building Committee, reminded the Board of Selectmen to designate substitutes for each member of the new Committee.

Hard-working members of the Select Committee Studying Sewage Treatment Options' Sub-Committee, present and past PTO officers from all schools, a Parks and Recreation Commissioner and his son, a Weston High School sophomore, also were in attendance and spoke.  Everyone had something to say.  And it got a bit unruly, but none the less, much was accomplished.  Everyone had to be impressed with our thoughtfull, hard-working and ever patient Board of Selectmen.

From the community at large was a League of Women Voters Co-President, the founder of Weston's Alliance (taxpayers group), and an angry parent, represented a particular point of view.  A new group, entitled "Weston Can" (as opposed to "cannot") spoke early and claimed 500 signatures of support. A leader of the successful campaign to save The Old Oak Tree on Norfield Road from developers stood to remind the crowd that effort had garnered as many signatures in two weekends.

Others who spoke were a longtime leader of WAGE (Gifted Education group), and one of the most eloquent voices in Weston, John Hammerslough--a former Selectman and member of any number of other major Boards--and a cast of perhaps 100.

THE NEW COMMITTEE AND ITS MISSION
With the assistance of Martin Strasmore, a Westonite who is a management consultant, the following Mission Statement and membership roster for the new Committee developed.  It took most of the session to agree upon the Mission, and the decision about who should be represented on the Committee almost sank the project before it had even begun!  The new Committee's mission:

To facilitate and lead the planning process to meet the educational needs of the students and educators, as identified by the Board of Education, and the social needs of the residents of Weston within the financial responsibilities of the Town.
Membership on the 7 member Committee with the above MISSION should be: It is now clear to me that we are going to "move forward" with school construction because the septic solution is looking brighter.

What is the worst case scenario for the schools?   Sewers to Norwalk is a non-starter option. No one wants to say that "the emperor is not wearing any clothes."  The Board of Education does not want to hear that all buildable land on campus, by order of the Department of Environmental Protection, might have to be reserved for future septic systems.

THE ONE BRIGHT NOTE THIS SPRING HAS BEEN CTDEP.  THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT IS BEING VERY COOPERATIVE IN HELPING WESTON FIND A SEPTIC SOLUTION FOR THE SCHOOL ROAD COMPLEX.

At the earliest opportunity, the Select Committee needs the mapping of where building can go on and where it cannot.  Soon those working on finding a septic solution should map out which land is needed for septic fields and reserve septic fields and a tertiary treatment plant.  And get some direction from the Department of Environmental Protection about increasing impervious surfaces on the School Campus...watch for the "ORDER" coming soon from CTDEP...