>>Valley Patriot>>
|
Thomson School Parent
Responds
to Letter in N. Andover Citizen
09/13/06
TO The Editor:
I would like to respond to a letter published September 8th,
regarding the pending installation of air conditioning at
the Thomson Elementary School As a member of the Thomson
School Council, and a very active volunteer present in
the school several days a week for the past seven years,
I have witnessed seven years of health difficulties there
that range from fainting to severe headaches, to severe
sleepiness, to an inability to concentrate, all
attributable to severe solar heat gain and extremely poor
air circulation.
I have also watched and discussed with teachers and
administration the burden of trying to teach to our
students while they are physically unable to devote their
full attention, or even hear, their teachers, daily
during the hours of 11:15 to 1:15, every school day of
the year. In the worst performing school in the
district, this is a huge concern not only from a MCAS
standpoint, but if allowed to continue without
amelioration, will affect us financially if we fail to
meet the No Child Left Behind mandate.
One of my frustrations with North Andover citizens is
their willingness to express their opinions first, before
they check their facts. For the past six months, Dawn
Crescitelli, Thomson’s PTO co-chair, and I have
attended School Building Committee meetings. We have
toured and inspected Thomson’s building and grounds
with the original architect, the original construction
manager, members of the school building committee, and
members of the school committee. From a construction
viewpoint, our complaints that our building was plagued
with design difficulties and inadequate and inefficient
air circulation systems were confirmed. Since this is the
very same architect and construction manager for every
one of our town’s school building projects in the
past two decades, we confirmed that Thomson School was
the ONLY school subject to these problems.
One facet to this issue is that Thomson School and the
High School are the only two building projects still open
with money remaining in their building construction
accounts. These monies can only be used to complete
construction issues. There is approximately $219,000.00
left in Thomson’s account, only $90 to $100,000.00
of which would be used to finish installation of an air
conditioning system. Both Sargent School and Thomson
School were built with ductwork capable of being
converted if future installations of air conditioning
were desired. Where is the other $119,000.00 going you
might ask? To fix our other major problems, namely poor
drainage and unusable fields.
This is not a “luxury” item, nor an “upgrade”.
This is fixing a design problem in the most economical
and efficient manner, BEFORE it’s necessitated by a
lawsuit. As for the cost of running such a system, I
would suggest to you that the swapping of dozens of
energy-guzzling electric fans for an efficient system
that is incapable of being turned on until late in the
spring may be a bargain. Also, the prospect of air
conditioning over the summer months is likely to become a
valuable source of revenue for summer programs and our
existing tenants, such as Lesley College
My hope going forward is that our citizens become savvy
enough to know when spending money is an investment that
will pay off in future dividends. Please don’t cloud
the issue with mistakenly-applied equity arguments.
Sincerely, Sandy Gleed
Parent, Thomson School,
North Andover
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The September, 2006
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 9,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Hampton & Salisbury
Beach, and Lowell.
|
Valley Patriot Archive
Prior columns by TomDuggan
Prior Columns by Jim Rurak
Prior Lead Stories
Prior Editorials
So Many Questions!
Prior Columns by Hanna
|
