"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you
look at it right"

-----Original Message-----
From: Mitchell Feigenbaum [mailto:FEIGENBAUM@mesirov.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 4:27 PM
To: fish@xpnonline.net
Subject: Re: FW: Radnor Middle School

TIM:

Thanks for the update.   Hopefully the School Board members realize that
there is strong community support for keeping the middle school in town.  If
the Board persists in its plan to rebuild at Androssan, they face opposition
from the Scott family, the Board of Commissioners and the populace.

It is incredible that (apparently) as many as four Board members and our
superintendent remain desirous of moving the school to Androssan.  To do so
in the face of all the opposition would result in acquisition and legal
costs that will make the recent 7% tax increase seem modest.

Now these certain Board members and our superintendent want to seize on the
supposed insufficiency of the Perini water report to justify their move.
Yet,  last year, this same Board brought in and now has hired (to help
Gilbert) a New England architect who opined then that we could build "a fine
school" on the current site.   He even showed slides and spoke of one lovely
school that he actually had built right on a stream bed.  (Interestingly,
after the architect conceded that we could build a "fine school" on the
current site, certain members of the Board and our superintendent tried to
refocus the justification for a move to the threat of explosive enrollment.
Yet, the demographic expert from U of P hired by the Board concluded that
the projected enrollment increases would not be nearly as bad as feared.
Thus, the focus is back on the water issue.)

Let's face it.  The water problem has to be addressed, school or no school.
Since one way or another the taxpayers are going to have to pay, the School
Board would just be adding insult to injury to make us pay to address the
water AND to acquire land for a new school.  Ironically, if this town keeps
raising taxes, the result will be to drive our seniors out and drive in more
families.  This would not only result in the very enrollment increases the
Board fears, it would be a great slap in the face of our older residents - -
the presence of whom help make this a great community in which to live.

Of course, the notion of converting our town center into a parking garage
borders on disgusting.  However, I hope that idea is actually given serious
consideration; it can only help galvanize those who would like to see the
middle school stay just where it is!