‘Sound’ Sallies Forth as an Issue at the BOE Parents Advisory Committee Meeting

Sound—most immediately, the presence of sound from an ongoing, evening school event—became the jumping off point Wednesday for an animated conversation among members of the , as the group debated budget priorites that address both immediate and long-term district needs.

“Is there anything in the budget to address the issue of sound?” asked one parent of a child at the , where the meeting took place.  She referred to the prevalence of sound throughout the open space intermediate school that quickly described as a school design that became very popular in the 1970's. 

Then, the concept of school buildings without permanent interior walls, which is an idea whose ancestry lies in the one-room schoolhouse, encouraged group learning according to skill rather than grade level.

At Francis Walsh, where a partitioned, grade-level instructional technique is now in place, some parents on the committee felt the noise from the other classrooms and school activities disrupted learning.  “So many people choose not to live in Branford because of this building,” one member of the audience said. 

Carrano, who conceded that the district has some buildings that need attention, pointed to the large, capital projects such as the firehouse and public works building now underway in the town. He said that he would like to see school renovation as the next project in line.

He noted that a study completed several years ago had compiled a wealth of data on the physical structures within the Branford School District.  According to parent Marie Watson, who said that the study also took into consideration the schools’ organizational structures, the study’s consideration for the Francis Walsh school was ambient noise.

“I don’t want to see it just sit on the shelf,” Carrano said of the issue of school renovation, although he noted that the district has taken very good care of its property through the years.  The district, he said, had been able to flat-fund its energy costs. 

The ideas he introduced for this year’s budget included adding programs to the district’s enrichment experience, and expanding pre-K education from one elementary school to three.  The introduction of foreign languages within the district at earlier grades—perhaps, at grade level four—was also discussed.

“Why are we always adding programs?” asked one parent, who felt the roughly one million dollars the education budget has to cover its discretionary costs might better be spent on matters that affect students within the district now.

By the end of the evening, Carrano said he would like to set up a committee to address the issue of physical alterations to the school buildings.  The committee, he said, would present its findings to the BOE by the end of this school year.

once again outlined the budget process, noting that he sits down with principals from each school to discuss their priorities before completing the first draft of the budget.  Presentation of the superintendent’s budget to the BOE is scheduled to take place in February.

Also thrown open to discussion was the content and dissemination of the online survey the district began last year to solicit additional input from parents on budget requests. Expected to go online before the holidays, Hernandez said that last year, when the online survey was posted on the BOE website, he received 83 responses in a district that has roughly 3,500 students.  He said this year he would like the responses to reach a critical mass.  The parents suggested emailing a copy of the survey to each household to increase the responses the district receives.

At the beginning of the meeting, Carrano asked that comments by the parents at the  committee meetings address broad issues facing the district, rather than any individual difficulties between a parent and a teacher or a parent and a school.