Willett School Closing Vote Stands-November 8, 1979

School Committee Rejects Motion to Rescind Shutdown Despite Outcry from Parents and Board Opponents

The school committee voted last night not to rescind last year’s decision to close the Willett School, but committee opponents of the decision said they would continue to fight it. School Superintendent Louis J. Taris, who supports closing the school, told the committee and about 80 people at the meeting, “There shall be no compromising of quality or programming for the students. Our planning has been tight and thorough.”

“I will bring the issue up again and with enthusiasm,” said committeeman Joseph Pentowski, who made the motion to rescind. “I think a delay in the closing of the school would do a lot of good and little harm.”

The committee voted 4-2 to stick to last year’s decision. Committee members voting to close the school were Rudith Berkowitz, Joan Cuff, Richard Joseph, and William Pudsey. Pentowski and William Egan voted to rescind the previous vote. Charles Saraca abstained.

Most of the 207 students attending the Willett School will go to the Cleveland School next year, according to the closing plan. Seventy-one students attending Willett from the Windsor Gardens apartment complex will go to the Prescott School. Taris said the plan would save the town an estimated $120,000 next year. He projects a 24-to-1 teacher-pupil ratio, but critics of the plan say there may be overcrowding, especially for children with learning disabilities.

“The closing would cause a crunch in special services,” Pentowski said. “We’d might as well use the building until enrollment drops significantly in two years. Then the combining of Willett and Cleveland would work smoothly.”

“The projected figures haven’t projected any increases,” Egan said. “This plan is very tight and we don’t have much room to breathe. Any increase could cause a different situation.”

“If we had an unanticipated upward drift in enrollment, we could meet with parents to get children transferred on a case-by-case basis,” Taris said. Taris defended the plan, citing several high student-to-teacher ratios already existing in the system. “The plan is workable and educationally sound,” he said. “It’s not a perfect plan, but there is no perfect plan.”

Residents attending the meeting, mostly from the Willett School area, voiced their displeasure with the committee’s decision to close the school. “It makes an awful lot of sense to postpone the closing for a couple of years,” Willett PTA President Ted Hansberry told the committee. “It’s insane to close the school for a savings of $10 a family per year.”

Mrs. Chris Foley of Windsor Gardens read a letter to the committee, signed by 25 people, which said, “Our children should not be shifted from school to school without serious educational reasons.”

Supporters of the plan remained firm in their commitment to it. “The administration has taken its stand,” Taris said. “The Willett School is closing,” Joseph said. “I voted that way and I’m not going to reconsider.” (Irwin Sterbokov photo)

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger