James Rackliffe
Farmington
Original: Patch.com
FARMINGTON, CT — To The Editor:
I am writing to express my enthusiastic support for the FHS building referendum coming up on June 3.
I have seen with my own eyes and have spoken to both current and former students and faculty of FHS that confirm the overwhelmingly deficient state of the current FHS facility and the dire need for our community to do something about it. It is, and has been, an embarrassment that the children of our community have had to attend school in such poor conditions.
It is also a testament to the FHS staff that the level of education has not suffered despite a crumbling, inadequate facility.
However, we have an incredible solution that has been presented to us. The FHS Building Committee, Farmington Board of Education and Town Council have operated in lockstep throughout the process that has led us to this moment of action. They have been thoughtful, transparent, honest and thorough, all while spending literally thousands of hours working on a comprehensive solution for FHS on behalf of our community.
I am grateful for their incredible efforts, not only as a parent, but as a taxpayer and member of this community.
With all of that said, there has been some very late arriving opposition to this project popping up in publications and signage around town. The opposition group thinks they are smart by using strong adjectives such as “deceptive” and “misleading” and other scare tactics in all of the materials they have released. They are preying on our societal vulnerabilities by showing up at the 11th hour to create chaos, raise doubts and sow distrust in our town government.
They have done this anonymously, coming up with bloated numbers seemingly written on a cocktail napkin, without sourcing and without mentioning their qualifications that would lead any of us to believe they are a credible source for information regarding this project. It is an insult to our collective intelligence, our community, our elected representatives and the volunteers who have done everything they could to be transparent, all while navigating through a global pandemic.
I would hate to see their tireless and honorable work unraveled by a group that doesn’t even have the courage to attach names and faces to their publications. It is a shame, a black eye for our town, and is nothing short of cowardly and deceitful. I hesitate to even give their claims oxygen, but think the cause is so important to defend.
This isn’t national politics. This was not a one-sided, partisan solution created in a vacuum. We have a bipartisan group of dedicated public servants and a groundswell of people in our community in unanimous support. This building will have such a dramatic effect on so many children and will provide the absolute best value for our taxpayer money.
There is no better investment that we can make in our town than one that invests in our children and the education they receive. Join me in voting YES for FHS on June 3.
James Rackliffe
Farmington
Community support for the project is strong - Read more letters!