We the undersigned sign our name  to officially oppose the Temporary Regional School Study Committee Ansonia Delegation’s “Resolution for Establishing a Framework for Merger” that creates a regional district for several reasons.

First, in addition to closing and boarding up Derby High School, this proposal rips  away the Irving school from the west side neighborhood that it currently resides in. This is wrong on so many levels. First, the amazing staff, students, parents and neighborhood residents make up a very close knit community that would be devastated by this closing. As the closing of Peck School in Ansonia has shown, the effects of closing a neighborhood school are devastating. After Peck School was closed, that city had to contend with vandals, vagrants and drug activity in the neighborhood. It became so bad that the school needed to be closed down.

In addition, this framework severely limits and takes away Derby’s ability to govern themselves and have a say in a wide range of topics from curriculum, budgeting, what is taught in the classroom, administrative choices, school schedules, etc. Simply  put, Ansonia having the biggest student population will simply exert their will and make all of the decisions. This could potentially be devastating for Derby students.

Finally, this proposal provides no economic benefit for the city of Derby. Truth be told, the greater economic benefit is for Ansonia as the city of Derby would save no money but instead have to spend money to upgrade the schools that Ansonia children’s will go to. From a financial perspective, this proposal saves Ansonia  millions upon millions of dollars as they will no longer need to build a middle school. This proposal takes any financial savings that the city of Derby  may have realized and uses it to offset Ansonia losses. Derby taxpayers should not have to offset Ansonia’s need to build a Middle School.