No Room To Talk

Sometimes it is just amazing to see the arrogance of some members of the Waterbury political scene. Back on Monday, Board of Education member John Theriault made a definite point of criticizing a budget increase in the plan to build three new K-8 schools in the city of Waterbury. This plan was approved unanimously back on September 18 by the Board of Education members that were in attendance. Mr. Theriault was not in attendance that night. After that meeting I made a point of applauding the Board of Education for moving forward on such a vital project. (See “Where The Past And Future Meet”)

What makes this particular tirade by Commissioner Theriault such a travesty is that he would be the one member of the Board of Education that a casual observer would expect to be most supportive of this plan. Commissioner Theriault was a teacher and principal in the Waterbury school system for many years, including several years as the principal of Gilmartin elementary school. As you can read in the earlier post, Gilmartin is one school that is up for replacement in this current plan.

Anyone who has spent time at Gilmartin school knows that the complex is comprised mostly of portable school buildings, that were never designed to be used for more then 10 years. Gilmartin has existed in this state for nearly 30 years. As with every elementary school in the city, Gilmartin is also overcrowded. As someone who served as the principal of this school, who is expected to know just what a school such as Gilmartin needs, you expect Commissioner Theriault to fully support this plan.

And yet, sadly but not surprisingly, Commissioner Theriault is causing trouble. He claimed in an interview with the Waterbury Republican-American that,

I think this is the beginning of an abyss, a bottomless pit, and we're going to throw in money and money and money…I feel I've been deceived, and the board has been deceived. We should have known about this.

This quote alone invites a wide range of criticism.

The most obvious issue with this quote is that if Commissioner Theriault felt that he was at risk of being deceived, why did he miss the meeting on September 18? This was not a special meeting that was not on the Board Schedule, which was announced back in January. So why then, if he was so concerned, did he miss this meeting?

Secondly, Commissioner Theriault made several comments that suggested this increase in cost was withheld from the Board of Education until the last minute. While the newspaper reports that the Board of Education found out about the increase about one hour before the September 18 meeting, which Commissioner Theriault missed, considering the locations that were up for vote, the increase should not have been a surprise.

The original plan did not hide the fact that the cost estimates were based on using city owned land as sites for the new schools. This land would not have cost the city anything in terms of purchasing the land, or moving the current residents to new housing. Furthermore, if the city already owned the land, the cost of cleaning and preparing the site for construction would have been greatly reduced.

While the increase in cost is unfortunate, it is not cause to make such a scene. When one adds to this list the fact that Commissioner Theriault is the only public official to complain about the current plan, his motives come into focus. It is my personal opinion that Commissioner Theriault has forgotten his roots in the Waterbury school system, and is trying to enjoy the focus of the media as long as possible. The best thing that the city and its officials can do to Commissioner Theriault is to ignore him. Then, just maybe, he will stop spouting his message of negativity and his radical conspiracy theories, and finally take his seat and quiet down.