It was a little unfair for the new Board of Education chairperson and new superintendent of schools to say that due diligence, that is, background research by committee, was not completed on matters related to improving the building and facilities at Stratford High School.
Due diligence evidently was carried out by building committees and by an architectural firm hired by Town Hall for a project to “renovate as new” Stratford High School, which was built in the 1920s. The project was outlined by the schools’ leadership at the time as a renovation, not the construction of a new school.
Information about other potential sites for a new high school and about building a new school at its current location was not produced in the past few years because that was not in the scope of the committees’ work as charged by school leadership at the time.
Communications related to building and facilities projects for Stratford Public Schools can be tricky at times, because there is a combined responsibility on such matters with the town of Stratford and the Board of Education. Further complicating communications are transitions in leadership.
The most important thing now is that the new schools leadership is clear about the scope of their request for exploratory committee work, and that the work be done thoroughly, efficiently and with some sense of urgency, because tending to improvements at Stratford High is taking a long time.