Letter: Latest new school misstep — no room for administration

Posted 10/23/19

To the editor:

When I order a cheeseburger, I expect without specifying, cheese to be included – not served on a separate plate, as an afterthought, or in another room. And don’t even think …

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Letter: Latest new school misstep — no room for administration

Posted

To the editor:

When I order a cheeseburger, I expect without specifying, cheese to be included – not served on a separate plate, as an afterthought, or in another room. And don’t even think about charging me extra for it.

This analogy can be compared to the most recent blunder relayed to the elected Westport School Board: no space for central administration in the new middle-high school building. Let me remind your readers, especially Westport taxpayers and town officials, that the school project as described in the language voters approved on January 23, 2018 includes but is not limited to all incidental or related expenses. 

Like the cheese on the cheeseburger, new school project voters should not have to specify the inclusion of the central administration department currently housed in the old Westport High School. Most townies are aware that transferring the use of that building, in its entirety, is a possibility. 

So why would Antonio Viveiros, chair of Westport’s elected School Board, not hold the unelected School Building Committee, together with the architect and project manager, liable and accountable for this latest snafu? Why is it becoming a School Board issue?

Maybe it’s because two members of the elected School Board, including Mr. Viveiros, also sit on that unelected School Building Committee. Voters gave that unelected committee the authority to spend the $97 million appropriated for new school funding at Special Town Meeting, January 23, 2018. 

Was the 4,000 square feet for the central administration department axed during the $10 million budget cuts? Maybe it was never included in the design, and Mr. Viveiros is now making that discovery? Could this additional cost be another bag taxpayers are going to be left holding?  

Marilyn Pease

Westport

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.