Opinion/Letters: Time to rethink new Rogers High School building plan
Thanks to Middletown High School staff for making a difference
Our granddaughter Reese Colleran will be graduating from Middletown High School this June and we would like to send our thanks to the principal and the great teachers who gave her support and understanding this last year.
Reese has trigeminal neuralgia and had brain surgery just before school started. Then Covid had school closed the year before but she still was able to keep up thanks to the counselors and teachers at Middletown. Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) is so very rare only about 12 out of 100,000 people are diagnosed in a year's time. Because shewas under 18 many pediatric neurologists have never seen a case. Through a TN Facebook group of other parents, her mom found a great doctor in California who performed the surgery she needed.
Reese and her family have lived in Japan several times and in many other states here in the U.S. Her dad will retire from the U.S. Navy after 28 years two weeks after graduation, moving back to Texas and leaving wonderful friends they have met in their time there. Teachers have had it hard lately and they should know how much they are appreciated by her family.
Jim Roberts, Deer Park, Texas
Time to rethink new Rogers High School building plan
Well, this is a letter I did not intend to write until I attended a meeting of the Newport City Council, School Committee and the Rogers Building Committee and all that I heard there. This project has truly become a "Taxpayer Cemetery" and shows no sign of getting better.
Latest on Rogers proect: Rogers High School is over budget. Why project leaders can't say how much.
First, the price is well over what was approved by the voters but that will not stop this group from moving on, to justify this they are removing many of the parts that were approved in November. We are now about $25 million over and that figure is as of early April and goes up daily. If we continue like this we will hit more than $50 million by the end of the year with more to come. Time to stop the madness and fix it. There are many things that could help but continuing on the same road is not one of them.
I propose all stop at the site except those things that if stopped would ruin what has been done to date. Call the architect and have another Rogers (Mod 5) using what we have in the ground as a footprint but without the gym or the Industrial Arts sections. Add to the new building a way to connect the existing gym and a proposal to bring it up to ADA standards. If some sections seem too expensive explain how to get waivers for them. Next, connect the Industrial Arts building to the gym with a new building and hall so these students can access the new school without going outside. The existing building's roof is supported by the outside walls so the rooms can be reconfigured as we want and adding windows is easy.
Next, let's do something with the pile of first occupying the old track that is contaminated will cause sickness to all of us. It is my understanding the contractor wants to use some as fill when the remaining school comes down. We can't get, the new one up so how far down the road that is would be anyone's guess. So while we wait the contaminants spread thru the ward. Then when all is done we the taxpayers will have to pay to get this dirty dirt trucked to the Cape Cod Landfill just like the Pell pile and that cost us a $400,000 disposal fee. The general contractor said the dirt is ours and they won't get rid of it.
Jack Milburn, Newport
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Time to rethink new Rogers High School building plan: Letters
