Ridgefield Candidates '97
Board of Education

Mary Pat Devine

Time For "Devine" Intervention!

The following statement was published in The Ridgefield Press on September 25, 1997:

Imagine a school system where the eighth grade social studies class is jammed into a windowless onetime-workroom, where sixth grade students learn keyboarding in the cafeteria and special ed students meet in a former science storage closet. East L.A.? East Boston? No, East Ridge.

After two years of political posturing, with one set of plans for a middle school addition abandoned and $1 million wasted, the situation is spiraling into crisis. The "Notre Dame option" is proving to be no option at all.

The Board of Education continues focusing energy on expansion at the five elementary schools. Elementary expansion may mean turning our supportive neighborhood elementary schools into larger less personal education institutions. And it won't solve middle school overcrowding.

The K-4, 5-6, 7-8 class configuration plan should be revisited. It means one building project not six. It eases the overcrowding in elementary and middle schools simultaneously. It's got to be less costly than building elementary school additions and a new 6-8 middle school.

This is not just a problem, it is an opportunity. We can relieve the overcrowded conditions and look to the 2lst Century. In a 5-6 program, the present fifth grade curriculum can be restructured to share aspects of the new sixth grade program: the "teaming" of core subjects, access to science labs, keyboarding and foreign languages.

The current Board of Education appears adrift, without a plan. It's time for "Devine" intervention.

Contributions to Ms. Devine's campaign may be sent to Mary Pat Devine for Board of Education, 23 Overlook Drive. Information about the campaign can be seen at the new Democratic Web site, www.ridgefielddems.org.

Campaign '97 Home GO TO Mary Pat Devine profile and position statements

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