Notes from the Old Noank Jail

To All……………..

I am writing this follow up to regarding the need to “Vote No” to Phase II at the Monday May 2nd Referendum in Groton. There have been recent developments and clarifications within the past few hours.

1) The suddenness of the “audit” mentioned in recent media articles, including the DAY, has raised some very serious questions as to proper procedure by the Groton Board of Education (BOE) and the Superintendent. This matter is being taken up with the DAY as to the possible illegal advocacy of using the audit at taxpayers expense and may even result in a further article on the subject by Monday. Under the circumstances, this would be an appropriate action on their part.

The comments and questions involved are as follows:

I frankly had not heard of the audit before reading about it in the DAY editorial and Chuck Potter’s article. My question is WHY NOT? Why have we not had it “shoved in our face” before this time when many of us have questioned the Phase II numbers? If it unquestionably agrees with all that Mr Kadri has said, we should have been seeing it in print long before this 11th hour last-minute blitz from the Phase II promoters.

We can only therefore suspect that there may be caveats, qualifying statements and questionable data in the audit which are not necessarily supportive of the desired outcome. It will be interesting to read the report, but in the 11th hour, perhaps too late to effectively challenge the contents by Monday May 2nd. Legal action may be appropriate following the Referendum.

Again…why have we not heard and seen this supposed report? Why has the BOE hidden it? Why has it been shown only to the press? What does it really say? What are the qualifying caveats? Why was it commissioned with public funds after the referendum was set? Why isn’t that a violation of the state rules against using public monies for advocacy after a referendum is set?

I also received an E-mail reply which stated: “I too was very frustrated and annoyed with the Day’s article and editorial. And I agree…the Superintendent’s hiring of the auditor seems like a clear violation of elections enforcement and needs to be challenged….the charge of impropriety needs to be made.”

Another, more detailed summary, included the following: “At first blush, I thought the results of the study on savings was damning, but after thinking about it I realized that the associated commentary raises a lot of questions: (1) When was the study commissioned? (2) What were the assumptions? (3) When did Mr Kadri receive informal notice of the results? (4) When did he receive a hard copy of those results? (5) If early-on, did he hold on to the report to preclude an open discussion of claims? (6) Are reimbursements a part of the claimed savings? (7) How are the savings going to translate into tax reductions? (8) What happened to promised savings from Phase I?”

“Also, nothing has been said regarding how new buildings will result in an improvement in student performance. Phase I yielded no such improvement, as witnessed by the Kolnaski school continuing to be on the list of those schools in danger of failing.”

2) Most have you have heard the references myself and many others have made concerning the fact that Harvard and Yale have 100 year old buildings which they proudly maintain. In that regard, I received this amusing comment from the Sexton (maintenance manager) of one of our local church buildings:

“Funny that they build schools out of brick and mortar with planned obsolescence in 25-30 years. I work in a wooden church that was built in 1871 and has survived a few fires and hurricanes in it’s 140 years. It’s still standing, operational, well attended, and considered one of the more beautiful churches in the area.

Oh, wait …. We don’t use tax money, we use donations and fund raisers.”

3) Along the subject of Town and School building maintenance, I did receive a clarification from a former BOE member who indicated that “it is not the fault of Wes Greenleaf, or past or present Superintendents…or BOE members… that many of our schools are not up to CURRENT codes or that many are in need of some major “maintenance/renovation”. The BOE can put in their annual operating budget routine maintenance costs… Painting… Minor upgrades… Maintenance…but not Renovations/major upgrades. The Town does the same. Any large expenditure on facility major maintenance/repair has to go in the CIP —(Capital Improvement Budget)” which is managed by the Town.”

4) The following comments below by the Chairman of Friends for Affordable Education (FFAE or FAE), Mr. Andrew Parella, are appropriate, and I hope that as many of you as possible, including those of you who I spoke with earlier today, will follow Andrew’s advice and contact people who may be “sitting on the fence.” We need every possible vote. The promoters of Phase II have spent money and we can be sure that they will, as they did with Phase I, try to “close” very strongly at the end. As we can see, they are already doing this, including knocking down or stealing our blue “Vote No” signs (2 were gone just from Noank Village this morning).

“Therefore, in this last stretch, we need everyone possible to talk to their friends, neighbors, etc., to vote on Monday, May 2 and vote NO to let the Superintendent and BOE know that we want other alternatives looked at. I talked to several people today in passing and everyone of them said they are voting no. They are mad at the paper but this could energize us to get people out even more readily. People are saying they can’t afford it and that’s the truth, they can’t.

The simplistic view chosen by The Day shows their lack of knowledge of Groton’s dynamics and how quickly “a too good to be true” approach is taken to heart and then encouraged by a local media company. Generally, the paper is a good one for information, but (in this case) they have to weigh the entire picture. The most disturbing factor in all this, is that an audit was done on a plan that was derived by one person and focuses on scenarios that are unpredictable with many assumptions. This is very dangerous!

Now, for the election: I need each of you who receives this email to call 10 people who will then be asked to call 10 more people…ASK them and remind them to please vote on Monday, May 2. You can insert if by email, or say if you see them, a one liner such as: this project will bond us for the next twenty years….this project will add preschool into our school system creating an extra layer of government….or the proposed middle school is directly in a flight path…or the grade levels are all being rearranged which is going to be a hardship on our children….or more bussing will occur on Rt. 117 and Route I, etc.”

5) One of the folks I spoke with today has suggested that if Phase II is actually approved (God forbid) on May 2nd, that a legal action should then be taken because of the issues involved, including the building of a new school in a flood prone area. Speaking for myself, I would definitely support such an action.

But I have a better idea.

Let’s save the legal fees. Let’s get as many people as possible to Vote No on Phase II.

Again, thank you all for your support.

Ed Johnson, at the Old Noank Jail.