The Berlin
Cit itiz ize en
Volume 16, Number 20
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
www.berlincitizen.com
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Superintendent assesses impact of state’s education reform bill By Daniel Jackson Special to The Citizen
Superintendant of Schools Dave Erwin said Berlin residents will not immediately see much of the effects of the educational reform legislation (Bill 548) that recently passed the Connecticut legislature because the direct effects are long term. “I think we have a lot of things in place,” he said. Erwin said the Berlin system was already doing some of what the state called for in the legislation. For example, Berlin schools bought in a writing trainer to continue the education of some of its teachers in the past. With one of the mandates of the bill requiring 18 hours of continue education, “It validates the direction in the way we’re going,” Erwin said.
For some districts, the legislation will bring more changes than others. Rep. Cathy Abercrombie, who represents Meriden and a portion of Berlin, announced on her website the changes the legislation bring in Meriden, such as $1.77 million dollars in equalization aid grants and funding for school based health centers. Berlin received $100,000 in additional grants. Berlin has to change two major things in response to the legislation: teacher evaluations and continuing teacher education, according to Erwin. But the school district will not jump on the issue right away— it will have to wait for Connecticut officials to hand down specifics in the coming weeks. Connecticut lawmakers praised the bill. See Reform, page 20
New club joins the race
Photo by Dr. Michelle Imossi
Members of the newly formed Berlin High School Interact Club participated in the May 12 CT Race in the Park. The event is an annual fundraiser for breast cancer research and has been held on Mother’s Day weekend at Walnut Hill Park, New Britain, for over 20 years. Interact is the high school chapter of Rotary International. Recently the New Britain-Berlin Rotary Club and the Kensington-Berlin Rotary Club joined forces to co-sponsor this new service club at BHS. Race in the Park was their first service project. Students volunteered as course monitors to guide and cheer the participants on during the events.
Kensington Grammar School is the subject of a public hearing tonight, May 17, at 7 p.m. at Berlin High School. The hearing had been rescheduled due to an overflow crowd at the last meeting.
PZC meeting on KGS rescheduled as neighbors come out in force By Daniel Jackson Special to The Citizen The Planning and Zoning Commission hearing on the Kensington Grammar School development was rescheduled to tonight, Thursday, May 17 at 7 p.m. at the Berlin High School because the amount of people attending the original meeting, May 10. exceeded the 120-person capacity for the Town Hall meeting room. The crowd was a mix of neighbors who live around the Alling Street property and members of St. Paul Church parish, located across the street from the old school. They attended the zoning hearing, concerned with the changes to the Alling street neighborhood, because Metro Reality, the developer of the property, plans on renovating Kensington Grammar School into senior housing and adding eight, threestory structures, to hold a total of 59 rental units. “Right now, there are more questions than answers,” said Stacie Padelli, a resident who lives near
the proposed development. She said the development is too dense for the area and it would increase traffic. Phone calls were placed to Geoffery Sager, president of The Metro Realty Group, but he was unable to comment at the time of publication. The Rev. Robert Schlageter of St. Paul Parish did not give the homily in his May 6 Mass and instead talked about the proposed development to his congregation. “You, the people of Berlin, will have to decide if you want this development here or not,” he said at the Mass. “Whatever the future holds, I feel that every single one of us should obtain as much information as possible.” The church used the property as a parking lot to handle the influx of people attending Mass at St. Paul. Now, with those spaces gone, the church is looking for new places for parking. The church has a parking committee set up, said See Meeting, page 8