Fix and renovate instead

I am writing this letter with some hesitation, but I feel strongly on this matter. The hesitation is because I have a child in the Westbrook school system. I hope my writing will have no ill effect on him.

The $29 million junior high project plus $4 million for an auditorium is why I am writing. First, I am wondering if people know where this $29 million is coming from. Just because the state is funding this doesn’t mean we (the taxpayers) aren’t paying for it. This is all our money.

I don’t think we need a new junior high and I certainly don’t believe it needs to be on outer Stroudwater Street. I guess that would mean more students taking the bus, too. I know the school we have needs to be renovated. I am at the building daily and have seen many things that need fixing. Does that mean we need to move and leave another vacant building and spend $29 million for a brand new one?

Fix what we have, add another floor, whatever. It is in a perfectly good location (30 years) now. What will happen to the vacant junior high? Community center or something – then we’ll need more money to create that.

Why does Westbrook think we have to have all the “best” of everything all the time, when the taxpayers are struggling now to pay their taxes? They say it’s “for the children of our city,” like giving them all the most expensive material things is going to make them smarter and better people. Having the best of everything doesn’t make a better education. My son got an OK education at the old run down junior high. Personally, I could care less if he is being taught in a one-room schoolhouse as long as he’s getting that good education.

Why do we need to spend another $4 million for an auditorium? I bet the junior high could use the one at the high school if need be. I’d be willing to bet it’s vacant four out of five nights a week. What’s wrong with setting up chairs in the gym? That works, too, and has been working.

Yes, it makes me wonder why we are voting on this in May and right before the new reassessment letters are sent out. I bet my property taxes are not going down, either.

We have loved living in Westbrook all our lives as have our parents and grandparents. We have no intention on moving, but it never ceases to amaze me how the politics and administrations (school and city) seem to circumvent what I believe is the right and fair way to run a city, just to push through things that they think will make them look good.

Please think about this. Fix and renovate the existing junior high and vote no on a new and relocated middle school.

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