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08/30/2017 08:30 AMAfter receiving some requests and inquiries from the community, Branford’s Board of Education (BOE) has formed an Advisory Committee to explore the possibility of naming the Branford High School (BHS) auditorium in honor of Cathyann Roding, who retired in June after leading the BHS choir and spring musical programs for 32 years.
Roding was not at the Aug. 16 BOE meeting where the idea was discussed, but the BOE did discuss some heartfelt support received for the idea and heard more that night from Roding’s BHS spring musical co-director, Toni Cartisano. Earlier this month, Cartisano formally announced she would retire as co-director of the BHS spring musicals.
Roding and Cartisano began co-directing BHS spring musicals in the 1986-’87 academic year, earning a reputation in the ensuing three decades for producing some of the best shows in the state.
On Aug. 16, BOE Chairman Michael Krause appointed BOE member John Prins, a supporter of the arts in the school system and a frequent member (on piano) of the BHS spring musical pit orchestra, to lead the advisory committee that will explore the idea of the naming the auditorium in honor of Roding.
In other school-associated naming requests, Krause noted that he had also received some letters, upon the 2015 naming of a school baseball field after the late BHS coach George Dummar, to consider naming a field in honor of BHS field hockey coach Cathy McGuirk, who is currently getting underway in leading the team for her 41st season this fall.
Saying he felt “both individuals are very deserving,” Krause cautioned the BOE on Aug. 16, “You never want to do something based on emotion; you want to do it on the right thing to do...Normally, an advisory committee would be formed to discuss that, and decide what to do.”
Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez said he agreed a time period for careful deliberation is needed, pointing to recent emotions spurring calls to the district seeking some sort of school-based memorial, following the tragic death of a student, 10 year-old Ben Callahan, in early July.
“I think you need to be really sensitive about rushing to do anything tonight. And I say that with a heavy heart, with an open mind, and really not to diminish anything those two individuals have done. I think they’re more than worthy of recognition,” said Hernandez.
With regard to honoring Roding and McGuirk, BOE Vice Chair John O’Connor said, “I just would hate to put too much time between the time that we all know it should be done and it finally happening. I think we should have them while students are still here who remember Cathyann, who remember Cathy McGuirk.”
“I think right now, what we do is one at a time,” said Krause, adding that, upon Roding’s retirement in June, “more recently the biggest request we have had has been [renaming] the auditorium. So [let’s] establish that committee, and take that on for now.”
Cartisano, a retired BHS physical education teacher and former BHS volleyball coach, added her comments during the public input portion of Aug. 16 BOE meeting. She told the BOE she understood there would have to be a process to follow in order to decide whether to name the BHS auditorium in Roding’s honor—even if, in Cartisano’s opinion, the answer should already be pretty clear.
“This is my 47th year working with the Board of Education, and in those 47 years, there has never been anyone who brought the community into that auditorium with a program that is just out of sight; superlative,” as did Roding, said Cartisano.
Roding’s work with BHS students as choir director included bi-annual European trips to perform and staging challenging choral productions involving months of work, with proceeds raised from community shows benefiting local charitable organizations.
“It’s not just the musical—that’s definitely not all there is,” said Cartisano. “I just don’t see any comparison—certainly not to any choral teacher I have known, in this time.”
Cartisano said naming school building areas in honor of those who have made an impact on the community, such as the relatively recent re-naming of the BHS Commons after former principal Dr. Edward Higgins, is “important, because it shows certain things that were important to the community of the school [and] the community as a whole as well.”
Cartisano told the BOE naming the BHS auditorium in honor of Roding would be a way for the town to say, “‘Cathyann, job well done,’” adding, “There isn’t anyone would walk into that auditorium, and not recognize that name.”
Cartisano added that while, “I don’t understand the hesitation” of the BOE to go forward with the decision that night, “I respect your policy.” Cartisano also offered to serve on the Advisory Committee, and, barring that, to “to give any information that I could to that committee.”