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A Hard Sell

In the Niche.com 2018 rankings for Connecticut high schools, Daniel Hand High School (DHHS) ranked #36, barely squeaking into the top 20 percent. The Source recently featured Bob Hale [July 27, “Bob Hale: Making Education (and Town) Better Since 1956”], a longtime Madison educator and former Board of Education chair when DHHS “was in the top four or five in the state, top 10 in the country...”

Why has DHHS’s rank fallen from fourth or fifth to 36th? Rankings 10 or more years apart by different methodologies and companies surely account for much of the disparity. However, not for all of it. Not for all three levels of schools.

Among Madison’s three elementary schools, Island Avenue School (proposed to be closed) topped the ranking at #31, with Ryerson at #33—both in the top six percent. Jeffrey at #78 was in the top 14 percent. Polson came in at #21 on the middle schools list (top nine percent) and Brown at #41 (top 15 percent). Niche’s 2017 overall rank of Connecticut school districts placed Madison at #13.

Reportedly, Niche rankings are based on test scores (50 percent), teachers (10 percent), student and parent surveys (10 percent), health and safety (10 percent), culture and diversity (10 percent), resources and facilities (5 percent), sports and activities (2.5 percent each).

Clearly our downward trend in the rankings is not due to our facilities. So why are we getting such a hard sell to vote for spending $59.9 million of increasingly scarce dollars on a new school and one major repair job? All other facilities options considered by the BOE cost less, allowing more of our dwindling sources of funding to be directed toward improving academic performance.

Does Madison want outstanding education, or 20 years of additional debt payments for architecturally au courant buildings.?

Barbara L. Davis

Madison