Editor’s note: The following letter was written to Planning and Zoning Commission members, and submitted to the Westport Journal for publication.
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Members of Planning and Zoning Commission:
We are 10 past presidents of the Long Lots PTA asking you to please approve the [8-24] application for a new school building without any further delay.
The building has been failing for upwards of a decade, if not longer.
As PTA presidents, we were tireless in our efforts to privately fundraise to improve the facility. We also passionately advocated the BOE and the funding bodies to allocate school budget dollars to mitigate the longstanding issues of deferred maintenance at LLS.
Finally, at long last, we have a consensus from the Board of Education and the first selectwoman’s Long Lots Building Committee that a wholesale replacement of the building is critically necessary.
It is your turn to act.
Please do not use complaints re: the relocation of a community garden or a proposal for a field in lieu of the same as reasons not to approve this application.
There are alternative locations for a community garden. There are not alternative locations for our largest elementary school.
We understand that moving the garden requires a period of transition for its membership and is not without its costs. But these costs pale in comparison to the benefits of maintaining Westport’s excellence in public education and providing adequate facilities for our youngest learners.
The educational needs of 600 elementary students and 100 Stepping Stones Pre-K students and dozens of Westport public school staff members are way too important to be sidelined by the recreational pursuits of a few.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Nealon, LLS president, 2008-10
Lauren Goodman, LLS co-president, 2010-12
Lisa Lesher, LLS co-president, 2010-12
Lily Bloomingdale, LLS co-president, 2011-13
Melissa Signorile, LLS co-president, 2013-15
Candace Banks, LLS co-president, 2014-16
Carolyn Caney, LLS co-president, 2015-17
Lisa Hill, LLS co-president, 2016-18
Sandra Krenzer, LLS co- president, 2017-19
Sandy Srihari, LLS co-president, 2018-20
P&Z should approve the 8-24 feasibility study for the new school that meets all Board of Ed. specifications. That part of the 8-24 providing for moving the gardens and building a massive ball field in its place should be rejected. If the town truly needs a new field, it can be built elsewhere. The large ball field was not requested by the Board of Ed and it will not benefit Long Lots students.
Question: Do you believe Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from any and all pending Supreme Court legal decisions on Donald Trump and the Jan 6 Insurrection because his wife, Ginni Thomas, was actively participating in the lead up to the Jan 6 Insurrection?
If you said yes to the above question then how do you answer this question?
Do you believe that Lee Caney should recuse himself from any and all pending BOF decisions on the Long Lots School Build because his wife, Carolyn Caney, is actively participating (see signers of the above letter) in this coordinated effort to lobby the P and Z Commission to approve the current 8-24 as submitted “without any further delay.”
Or am I missing something here?
John F. Suggs