Ridgefield's tradition of excellence in education dates back to the "Little Red School House" (Peter Parley School), built in 1756

Where Things Stand Now - Feb. 1999

Citizen advisory committees
The latest citizen advisory committee has now made its report to the town. For the last two years, advisory committees have studied how Ridgefield can best construct the additional classroom space it needs. In December, 1997, an 11-member Site Selection Committee was chosen, and it finalized its report to the Selectmen in January 1998. They presented a rank-ordered list of seven sites on which a single large new intermediate school could be built. Their most highly recommended site was the Ippoliti property, which the town subsequently purchased. However, in two referenda, citizens refused to allow the town to proceed to build a school on this site.

One year later, in December, 1998, the Boards of Selectmen and Education, acting jointly, appointed a 40-member School Advisory Committee, which was charged with recommending options, but not with indicating a preference for any of the alternatives. This committee delivered its report on Feb. 10; they offered a list of four possible building sites, and also offered the option of adding to any or all of the existing elementary schools. Their recommendation was that the Town select either a single solution, or mix-and-match a variety of building projects to yield the required additonal school capacity.

Ippoliti out, Old High School in
The primary difference in the recommendations of the two bodies were:

• The 1998 site selection committee rated the Ippoliti property as the first choice for a single new school. The 1999 committee, cognizant of the fact that townspeople had twice defeated funding for this site, did not consider it as a realistic choice, and did not recommend it.
• The 1998 committee only briefly considered retrofitting the old high school (Town Hall Annex), and it did not make their list of finalist sites. The 1999 committee offered it as one of their four recommended sites for additonal classrooms.

The work ahead
The Board of Education must now finalize its educational specification. Last year the Board selected a K-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12 grade configuration. After the defeat of the second Ippoliti referendum, they decided to reopen consideration of all options. The Board of Selectmen must come up with a recommendation for where the new classrooms will be built, and whether we will build a single large school, two medium-size schools, retrofit former school buildings, expand existing schools, or some combination of all of the above. This is a daunting challenge.

The current activity surrounding adding capacity to the Ridgefield public schools is part of a long process, dating back well into 1997. Ridgefield Democrats have chronicled this process on the Internet. The complete archive is available on-line, to help Ridgefielders understand this important story in all its dimensions.

The full report of the 1997-98 School Site Selection Committee, including the attachments, is available in hard copy at Town Hall, and is also available on the Town web site. Click here to see the final vote of the 1997-98 School Site Selection Committee on alternative sites

Click here for the final report of the 1998-99 Community Advisory Committee to the Boards of Education and Selectmen on Site Selection.

Thanks to Democratic volunteers, especially Selectmen Barbara Manners and Mike Jones, Board of Education members Bob Opotzner, Kitty Fischer, and Mary Pat Devine, and DTC member Mary Miller for their tireless efforts on behalf of Ridgefield schools, their reporting and photography for this web site, and continuing efforts to inform the people of Ridgefield about this important process.

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