Politics & Government

Ciocci: Proposed Magnet School 'Bad' for Trumbull

by Chadwick Ciocci

Trumbull’s Town Council will soon vote on an inter-municipal agreement for Bridgeport to build a new high school within our town. I have spoken out against this proposal on a number of occasions and for myriad reasons, but I would like to raise two issues which have not been given due attention. 

The school is to be built in Trumbull, specifically a residential neighborhood near Quarry Road. This neighborhood has over 100 homes and families who love, respect and cherish their surroundings. They are proud to be Trumbull residents and proud to live where they do, and for good reason. 

Unfortunately this neighborhood already deals with the ramifications of being so close to Bridgeport, and as a result of its location, Trumbull officials have on numerous occasions proposed to dump unwanted projects in the area.

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The UI substation comes to mind as the most recent historical example.  Somehow it is acceptable to undermine one neighborhood near Quarry Road but not Nichols or other parts of town. And now Bridgeport is practicing the same tactics that past Trumbull elected officials have: pick on the little guy.  

Currently our town is having conversations about not only building a Bridgeport high school in the neighborhood but potentially a sewer treatment facility as well. It is high time that Trumbull stopped treating certain neighborhoods differently than other neighborhoods. We all live in Trumbull and should be treated equally as such. 

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While I do not believe that municipal governments should actively try to increase property values by their decisions or indecisions, it is even worse policy to actively undermine the quality and property values of a neighborhood by building unwanted and unneeded non-residential structures in residential neighborhoods.

If we want homeowners and developers to invest in the neighborhood in question, and as a result increase the quality of life, these same people must be assured that our local government will do everything it can, on a long-term basis, to ensure that their neighborhood will be protected against intrusive non-residential construction.

It does homeowners and others who might improve the area no good- and it does Trumbull no good- to live with the fear that if they do invest in their property, that a year or two down the line, there is sure to be another proposal that might negate everything they have improved.  

On a related note, I urge everyone who is enticed by the idea that some Trumbull students will be able to attend this school to think twice. It strikes me that if this school is built that we will have sacrificed a neighborhood in the name of giving a handful of Trumbull students an inadequate education when they could receive a more than reputable one at our own high school.

Remember, regardless of the fact that this school will be located in Trumbull, students will be receiving a Bridgeport education. Parents, would you send your child to any of Bridgeport’s other high schools? Of course not! That this school will be new and beautiful does not negate the fact that it will be run by Bridgeport’s failed board of education. 

This high school is bad for its Trumbull neighborhood, bad for Trumbull students and just plain bad for Trumbull. 

Sincerely,

Chadwick Ciocci

[Republican] Majority Leader

Town Council


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