Author: Ryley McGinnis

One of the biggest debates in the world of wheel­chair propul­sion is push vs. pull, and one Senior Design team is look­ing to take this ques­tion to the next lev­el of testing.

Senior bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing majors Mitchell DuBuc, James Welch, and Alex Drap­er, under the advise­ment of Pro­fes­sor Krysty­na Gielo-Per­czak, are putting a new type of wheel­chair wheel to the test. Rowheels and Numo­tion, two com­pa­nies which design wheel­chair wheels with a pull sys­tem, have passed lab­o­ra­to­ry tests and appli­ca­tions, but this Senior Design team is test­ing these wheels in real-life applications.

DuBuc, who is in a wheel­chair him­self, got inter­est­ed in the project through per­son­al experience.

“I got inter­est­ed in it because I’m in a wheel­chair and that lends itself to me being inter­est­ed in ambu­la­to­ry advance­ments that come out,” DuBuc said. “I was just talk­ing with Dr. Gielo-Per­czak one day about push vs. pull, because that’s a big inter­est of hers, and how in what aspect the human body is stronger. I had learned about these wheels a while back, very briefly, so I looked them up again and found out that they were still push­ing for­ward with the wheels, so I brought it to her atten­tion, and we went from there.”

In a tra­di­tion­al wheel­chair, the user push­es to go for­ward and pulls to go back­ward. In the new pull wheel­chair, users do the com­plete oppo­site and pull to go for­ward and push to go back­ward. Accord­ing to DuBuc, in push wheels, the more con­ven­tion­al for­mat, some users suf­fer from shoul­der impinge­ment from the push movement.

Drap­er says the rea­son that wheel­chair users expe­ri­ence pain and wear-and-tear is because the tra­di­tion­al wheel­chair wheel is designed phys­i­o­log­i­cal­ly backward:

“For some­one who’s not in a wheel­chair, it’s like some­one would rotate your hips 180 degrees and then some­one tells you to walk for­ward while your legs are back­ward,” Drap­er said.

A pulling mod­el, on the oth­er hand, is sup­posed to spread out the force to big­ger mus­cles in the arms, such as the biceps. And through their tests, they hope to see if this holds true in real-life application.

Specif­i­cal­ly, they will be run­ning a series of tests on oth­er wheel­chair-bound indi­vid­u­als, with vary­ing lev­els of dis­abil­i­ty, to see whether the push or pull sys­tem works the best. They will do this by track­ing mus­cle activ­i­ty using a series of sen­sors that will mea­sure the activ­i­ty lev­el of spe­cif­ic mus­cles in the arms and back. The sen­sors will show which mus­cles are acti­vat­ed at any giv­en time, and the team will look at which wheels acti­vate which mus­cles, Drap­er said.

In order to per­form test­ing on oth­er indi­vid­u­als, the team needs approval from the UConn Insti­tu­tion­al Review Board (IRB), which reg­u­lates any test­ing done on humans. They are hop­ing to have their appli­ca­tion fin­ished and approved by mid-Decem­ber, Drap­er said, who cit­ed the IRB appli­ca­tion as one of the most stress­ful parts.

“It’s very spe­cif­ic legal talk, you have to be very direct with your phras­ing, and you have to be very clear what a risk is and the solu­tion to it,” said Draper.

DuBuc echoed this as a strug­gle and added that find­ing the par­tic­i­pants may be anoth­er issue. He has already reached out to his sup­port group back home, and they hope to uti­lize the IRB and UConn’s Cen­ter for Stu­dents with Dis­abil­i­ties to get the word out, but they’re still wor­ried about the num­ber of peo­ple they’ll be able to get.

After find­ing the par­tic­i­pants, they will all have to work dili­gent­ly to con­duct the exper­i­ments, which will be the main project for the spring semes­ter. They want each par­tic­i­pant to come in two sep­a­rate times to test out the dif­fer­ent wheels so that they can get more accu­rate data.

“It’s impor­tant to make them com­fort­able,” Drap­er said.

But even with the obsta­cles, all of the team mem­bers have big hopes for what this project could do out­side of the class­room setting.

“To me, the main goal is to intro­duce this to be used more,” said DuBuc, “and a job would be good too.”

Drap­er and Welch quick­ly agreed on the job part. But Drap­er still hopes it will help the com­pa­ny and the future of this technology.

“First, open­ing up the door for future research on this top­ic, it is some­thing that is a rel­a­tive­ly new tech­nol­o­gy that peo­ple aren’t famil­iar with and it’s not out­spo­ken in the med­ical com­mu­ni­ty,” said Drap­er. “The sec­ond would be an actu­al change in phys­i­cal ther­a­py diag­no­sis. If this project affects when they offer these wheels, that would mean the world to us.”

This arti­cle is part of a mul­ti-part series on engi­neer­ing stu­dents, and their jour­ney through senior design. Part two of this team’s jour­ney will come out in ear­ly April 2019.

Friends and fam­i­ly came togeth­er on Tues­day at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hart­ford  in West Hart­ford for an unveil­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the A. Peter LoMaglio memo­r­i­al high­way sign.

By Ryley McGinnis

A. Peter LoMaglio left a lega­cy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hart­ford as the first direc­tor of ath­let­ics, and that lega­cy was hon­ored Tues­day as the  A. Peter LoMaglio Memo­r­i­al High­way sign was unveiled. 

The memo­r­i­al high­way will run for part of Bloom­field Avenue near UHart’s main entrance. Even though the cer­e­mo­ny was brief, his fam­i­ly, friends, and suc­ces­sors had a lot to say about the late LoMaglio. 

Mary Ellen Gille­spie, Uni­ver­si­ty of Hart­ford’s cur­rent ath­let­ic direc­tor, said that she thinks LoMaglio would be proud of the cur­rent Hart­ford Hawks ath­let­ics depart­ment for their aca­d­e­mics, involve­ment in the com­mu­ni­ty, com­pe­ti­tion and more. 

“I believe he would love to know that we call the Hart­ford Hawks the cap­i­tal city’s team,” said Gille­spie, “The pas­sion we have for devel­op­ing our young peo­ple and pro­vid­ing them the skills to be suc­cess­ful in life is the same pas­sion that he start­ed here over 60 years ago.” 

State Sen. Dou­glas McCro­ry, a for­mer stu­dent-ath­lete at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hart­ford, was also in atten­dance and echoed LoMaglio’s accom­plish­ments and ded­i­ca­tion to the Uni­ver­si­ty’s ath­let­ics pro­gram and to the Unit­ed States Army. McCro­ry, whose dis­trict includes the north­ern part of Hart­ford, Bloom­field, and Wind­sor, referred to LoMaglio as the” father of UHart ath­let­ics,” and he said when he was con­tact­ed about pos­si­bly putting up a sign to hon­or LoMaglio he jumped right on the project. “As the state sen­a­tor and alum of UHart, I knew this was the least we could do to hon­or a man who ded­i­cat­ed his life, not only to our coun­try but towards edu­cat­ing and help­ing oth­ers,” said McCrory. 

David McQuade, a lob­by­ist in Hart­ford, was also part of bring­ing this project to light. McQuade spoke of mem­o­ries he had with LoMaglio when he was young and a friend of his son, Tim LoMaglio. “I pon­dered, what could we do to atone for our sins toward Peter LoMaglio, because his son Tim and I tor­tured him in our teenage years,” said McQuade. He went on to tell fun­ny sto­ries on the trou­ble he got into with LoMaglio’s son, Tim, in his teenage years. 

Tim LoMaglio also spoke at the cer­e­mo­ny, and he said how this would be one time in his life that his dad wouldn’t know what to say. He also thanked his moth­er, “She was real­ly instru­men­tal in my dad’s suc­cess over the years and she doesn’t get enough cred­it,” said Tim LoMaglio. 

After the cer­e­mo­ny, Tim LoMaglio told We-Ha.com what this sign meant for his dad’s lega­cy. “I think it adds a lot to his lega­cy. Peo­ple and stu­dents [at UHart] may not know who he is, they haven’t met him, so this adds a lot,” said Tim LoMaglio. He said that when he sees the sign, he thinks of his dad’s last few years before he died and his long­stand­ing ded­i­ca­tion to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hartford.

Sujit­no Saju­ti, a long­time res­i­dent of West Hart­ford, has been tak­ing sanc­tu­ary at the Uni­tar­i­an Uni­ver­sal­ist Church in Meri­den for eight months in fear of deportation.

By Ryley McGin­nis. Pho­tos by Ron­ni Newton

Sujit­no Saju­ti still hopes for the Amer­i­can dream, but he under­stands it is unlikely. 

On Tues­day, sit­ting in the din­ing area of the Uni­tar­i­an Uni­ver­sal­ist Church in Meri­den, where he has been in sanc­tu­ary for eight months, Saju­ti told We-Ha.com about his past, his sanc­tu­ary, and his positivity.

Saju­ti, 69, a med­ical anthro­pol­o­gist with sev­er­al mas­ter’s degrees, sought sanc­tu­ary back in Octo­ber when he was about to be forced out of the Unit­ed States and back to his home coun­try of Indone­sia, which he hasn’t been back to since 1989 when he came back to the Unit­ed States to fur­ther his edu­ca­tion. In 1981 he came to the Unit­ed States for the first time to study pub­lic health and get his mas­ter’s at Colum­bia University.

On Wednes­day, the Con­necti­cut Immi­grant Rights Alliance is host­ing a potluck event of “din­ner and dia­logue” about immi­gra­tion issues in Con­necti­cut and as a fundrais­er for the Saju­ti’s. The potluck is from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Flagg Road Unit­ed Church of Christ, 134 Flagg Rd. in West Hart­ford. More infor­ma­tion is avail­able on the Face­book event page.

When Saju­ti moved to West Hart­ford, he and his wife got very involved in the com­mu­ni­ty, espe­cial­ly with Hel­lo! West Hart­ford. Bep­sie Per­ry, the founder and pres­i­dent of Hel­lo! West Hart­ford, told We-Ha.com how ded­i­cat­ed the two have been. “They have done numer­ous things, but have main­ly taught peo­ple about Indone­sian cul­ture and the impor­tance of lan­guage,” said Per­ry. “They teach class­es for con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion, help adults get their GED, and more. They are just extreme­ly kind, lov­ing and have tremen­dous patience and sen­si­tiv­i­ty towards every­one,” she said.

“They have not missed a sin­gle event for Hel­lo! West Hart­ford and they real­ly focus on build­ing bridges,” said Perry. 

In sanc­tu­ary, Saju­ti has spent most of his time exer­cis­ing, focus­ing on reli­gion – and most impor­tant­ly – stay­ing pos­i­tive. “I don’t want to hear neg­a­tive,” said Saju­ti. “In times like these you have to be cre­ative, pro­duc­tive, and use your imagination.” 

He exer­cis­es by mov­ing through­out the small church build­ing, and said it is impor­tant to main­tain his health.

Saju­ti prays mul­ti­ple times a day as part of his Mus­lim faith, and he fasts on Mon­days and Thurs­days. The Uni­tar­i­an church is very accom­mo­dat­ing and even puts up signs that let vis­i­tors know that the cou­ple is fast­ing so that they can respect their traditions. 

Sajuti’s wife of 37 years, Dahlia, is not con­fined to the church like her hus­band but she spends much of her time there. Saju­ti said that her immi­gra­tion case is dif­fer­ent, and she may come and go as she pleas­es. They both share a pos­i­tive out­look, even in their con­fined liv­ing quar­ters where a prayer rug occu­pies the cor­ner that faces to the east.

In the church’s kitchen, Dahlia, an accom­plished cook, pre­pares healthy, veg­e­tar­i­an dish­es for the couple.

Saju­ti still has faith in the gov­ern­ment and said that you can’t blame the whole gov­ern­ment for the works of one per­son or orga­ni­za­tion. “Not all peo­ple in gov­ern­ment are bad, you can­not blame the whole for one per­son or part,” said Saju­ti. Now, how­ev­er, he’s not sure who he can and can’t trust.

Saju­ti allowed the legal sys­tem to advo­cate on his behalf, employ­ing mul­ti­ple lawyers over the years and said he can’t under­stand how more dif­fi­cult and com­pli­cat­ed immi­gra­tion cas­es are resolved. “Me, it’s a very easy case,” he said, adding that he believes that being a Mus­lim has not helped him.

In 2017, when he report­ed for his annu­al check-in at the Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment (ICE) office, Saju­ti’s request to remain in the Unit­ed States was reject­ed. “It’s beyond my pre­dic­tion,” Saju­ti said. “My case is so much bet­ter. We pay tax, social secu­ri­ty. I only focus on school and work.”

He has not gone out­side since he came to live at the Uni­tar­i­an Uni­ver­sal­ist Church on Oct. 10.

Saju­ti hopes to be able to give back to those who have sup­port­ed him. “I feel bad if I can­not do some­thing because a lot of peo­ple are help­ing me,” he said.

He also believes in being kind no mat­ter what adver­si­ties you face. “It’s tough, when you get hurt, to for­give some­one. You still have to be pos­i­tive and be nice,” said Sajuti. 

Like what you see here? Click here to sub­scribe to We-Ha’s newslet­ter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s hap­pen­ing in West Hartford!

West Hart­ford’s North­west Catholic High School held its 54th com­mence­ment cer­e­mo­ny Wednes­day and con­grat­u­lat­ed the grad­u­ates of 2018 with advice on change, com­mit­ment, diver­si­ty, and more. 

By Ryley McGinnis 

North­west Catholic’s class of 2018 had a lot to cel­e­brate on Wednes­day as they turned their tas­sels, thanked their par­ents, and start­ed a new chap­ter as high school graduates. 

The class of 120 stu­dents gath­ered with their friends, fam­i­ly mem­bers, and teach­ers at the Cathe­dral of St. Joseph in Hart­ford, which has held the com­mence­ment cer­e­monies for the school since its founding. 

Speech­es were giv­en by salu­ta­to­ri­an Mol­ly Con­way of West Hart­ford, vale­dic­to­ri­an Dylan Rispoli of Wind­sor, and the grad­u­a­tion speak­er for the year, Major Gen­er­al Paul E. Lefeb­vre, who grad­u­at­ed from North­west Catholic in 1971. Addi­tion­al­ly, the prayer ser­vice was per­formed by stu­dent min­is­ters Ifeo­ma Chi­dozie, Bren­dan Wlo­chows­ki, Daniel Ogbon­na, James Sul­li­van, John Sul­li­van, and Mar­garet Bello. 

Both Con­way and Rispoli start­ed their speech­es by thank­ing their fam­i­lies and the teach­ers and staff at North­west Catholic for their time, com­mit­ment, and sup­port and those that played a role in their suc­cess. Con­way start­ed off her speech admit­ting that she had just learned to even pro­nounce the word “salu­ta­to­ri­an” but was proud to have been giv­en her last home­work assign­ment of writ­ing her speech for grad­u­a­tion, Con­way said. 

“It is crazy to think that we are stand­ing here today grad­u­at­ing from North­west Catholic,” said Con­way. “Now we turn the page to a new chap­ter, the one that is unwrit­ten, left for us to create.” 

Rispoli echoed the same sen­ti­ment, “Now, just like that, here we are, ready to close the book of our time here at North­west Catholic,” said Rispoli, “and to begin writ­ing the next chapter.” 

At the end of her speech, Con­way said she would be remiss if she did not men­tion the numer­ous tragedies that have struck schools across the coun­try, and that she and her class­mates all have an oppor­tu­ni­ty – “the oppor­tu­ni­ty to use our voic­es to improve our soci­ety for the bet­ter,” said Conway. 

Ripoli talked about that his time at North­west improved him­self and oth­ers over the years. From the school’s change in mas­cot, the ren­o­va­tions to the cafe­te­ria, and the changes that each indi­vid­ual expe­ri­enced, he showed how the class of 2018 was a spe­cial group and expe­ri­enced a lot of changes. “And I think it’s safe to say that these changes have been pos­i­tive ones,” said Ripoli. 

Lefeb­vre also took the time in his speech to the grad­u­ates to reflect on his time at North­west Catholic back when he was a stu­dent. In his time at North­west, he met his wife, played on the foot­ball team, and grew to be defined by his time there, said Lefeb­vre. He high­light­ed two traits, com­mit­ment and the val­ue of diver­si­ty, that were both a part of his learn­ing expe­ri­ence at the school. 

Com­mit­ment played a role on the foot­ball field for Lefeb­vre. “To be a part of the North­west Catholic foot­ball pro­gram meant total ded­i­ca­tion,” said Lefeb­vre. “As my com­mit­ment increased, my per­for­mance improved along with my con­fi­dence, and this lev­el of com­mit­ment began to go beyond the foot­ball field.” Accord­ing to Lefeb­vre, this com­mit­ment led him through his col­lege foot­ball career, his coach­ing career, the Unit­ed States Marine Corp and more. 

“The sec­ond trait is just as impor­tant, and I learned it in the class­room,” said Lefeb­vre, “and it is the val­ue of diver­si­ty.” Lefeb­vre quot­ed Gen­er­al George Pat­ton when he said, “If every­one is think­ing alike, then some­body isn’t think­ing.” Lefeb­vre said from expe­ri­ence that this sen­ti­ment is true, and that diver­si­ty allowed him to see many dif­fer­ent view­points and ideas in his time at North­west his life afterward. 

Lefeb­vre end­ed his speech by urg­ing the grad­u­ates to take the time to thank their fam­i­lies and teach­ers. “A few years from now you may not remem­ber who the grad­u­a­tion speak­er was or what he said, but it would be good if you could remem­ber that you took the time to say thank you on this very spe­cial day,” said Lefebvre. 

Con­way also quot­ed a notable per­son, Maya Angelou, who once said: “I’ve learned that peo­ple will for­get what you said, peo­ple will for­get what you did, but peo­ple will nev­er for­get how you made them feel.” 

And with their smil­ing faces, hugs to each oth­er as they stood in the pews, and the sound of their alma mater in the back­ground as they exit­ed the cathe­dral, it seemed like the class of 2018 would nev­er for­get how they felt at their grad­u­a­tion from North­west Catholic. 

Like what you see here? Click here to sub­scribe to We-Ha’s newslet­ter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s hap­pen­ing in West Hartford!

Beau­ti­ful Smiles, a fam­i­ly den­tistry prac­tice in West Hart­ford, has its very own ther­a­py dog named Lucy, who assists patients with anx­i­ety about going to the dentist. 

By Ryley McGinnis

Beau­ti­ful Smiles fam­i­ly den­tistry in West Hart­ford has all the typ­i­cal bells and whis­tles of a mod­ern den­tist office – plus a wag­ging tail. 

Lucy, Beau­ti­ful Smiles’ very own ther­a­py dog, is a 4‑year-old gold­en retriev­er whose favorite hob­by is just to be around peo­ple, Dr. Robert Kievit told We-Ha.com. Kievit and his wife, Dr. Alyssa McIn­tyre Kievit, who are both den­tists at the prac­tice, got Lucy when she was just a pup­py and orig­i­nal­ly didn’t plan on get­ting her cer­ti­fied as a ther­a­py dog. 

“She was orig­i­nal­ly just going to be our fam­i­ly dog,” said Kievit. “But now it’s great that we can bring her to work with us some days.” 

Lucy had to attend eight weeks of train­ing and pass two exams, one with Kievit and one with his wife since they are sep­a­rate han­dlers. Lucy can be found lying in her bed or strewn across the tile floor behind a gate near the front desk of the prac­tice. Lucy isn’t let out into the prac­tice with­out per­mis­sion from patients and must have one of her han­dlers close by. 

“We let her out and she’ll go to the peo­ple at the front desk, go sit with them in the wait­ing room and just dis­tract them,” said Kievit. He said that he has seen direct improve­ments in patients’ anx­i­eties about going to the den­tist. “There’s a high lev­el of patients who have anx­i­ety about going to the den­tist, so with Lucy here it’s like they’re just going to see her and it helps,” said Kievit. 

Kievit said that it’s not just kids or adults that uti­lize Lucy to reduce anx­i­ety; a wide range of patients like to see her. Some may not even have that much anx­i­ety, but still think it’s just nice to see and pet a dog, said Kievit. 

Both Kievit and his wife grad­u­at­ed from den­tal school at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut in Farm­ing­ton in 2013. They bought Beau­ti­ful Smiles in Jan­u­ary of 2018 and have been bring­ing Lucy in from the start. 

And as for Lucy, she nev­er “works” a day in her life. Kievit said Lucy loves to be around peo­ple, and nev­er likes to be alone. “She’s always excit­ed to come to the prac­tice and spend time with peo­ple,” said Kievit. 

For patients with aller­gies or a fear of dogs, Lucy is kept com­plete­ly sep­a­rate from them when they come in or Lucy doesn’t come to the office that day at all. They make a note in the chart, and make sure to accom­mo­date each patient, said Kievit. 

“The biggest thing is the fur, some­times it’s like she’s molt­ing she sheds so much,” Kievit said. Kievit said a cleanup crew comes in and vac­u­ums up all the fur on the floor (and some­times the walls) that Lucy leaves behind before the next busi­ness day to keep the prac­tice clean. 

Out­side of work, Kievit said he hopes to get more involved with Lucy in the com­mu­ni­ty, and it seems that as long as Lucy is around peo­ple, she will be happy.

By Ryley McGinnis

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — At the Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing Tues­day, two key char­ac­ter­is­tics became appar­ent for what school admin­is­tra­tors see as impor­tant when it comes to school safe­ty and dis­ci­pline: com­mu­ni­ca­tion and collaboration.

The goal is not pun­ish­ment, Assis­tant Super­in­ten­dent Andrew Mor­row not­ed, which is why these two char­ac­ter­is­tics are so impor­tant to con­sid­er in a dis­cus­sion of the Safe School Cli­mate and Dis­ci­pline Report, which details West Hart­ford School’s safe­ty and dis­ci­pline, looks at trends, and rec­om­mends nec­es­sary measures.

The report also breaks down dis­ci­pli­nary actions by race, eth­nic­i­ty and grade, and while data in West Hart­ford is bet­ter than the statewide aver­age, Mor­row said that the num­ber of minor­i­ty stu­dents who face dis­ci­pli­nary action in com­par­i­son to oth­er stu­dents is still high­er than it should be. “We rec­og­nize that kids make mis­takes, and we encour­age pos­i­tive behav­ior,” said Mor­row. “We’re work­ing hard to devel­op communication.”

Conard High School has devel­oped a new way to start this com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Prin­ci­pal Julio Duarte told the Board how Conard part­nered up with Dr. Glenn Mit­o­ma, assis­tant pro­fes­sor of Human Rights and Edu­ca­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut, to start these con­ver­sa­tions. A group of Conard stu­dents vis­it­ed UConn to not only see col­lege life but also to learn how to hold dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tions with their class­mates, teach­ers, and administrators.

“The stu­dents came back real­ly ener­gized,” said Duarte. From this expe­ri­ence, Conard held a school-wide assem­bly, and after­ward, each home­room held a 45-minute dis­cus­sion on the pur­pose of edu­ca­tion where stu­dents shared their opin­ions and dif­fer­ences. Both stu­dents and mod­er­a­tors enjoyed this exer­cise, and Duarte said that they will be look­ing at the next steps in con­tin­u­ing and fur­ther­ing these conversations.

Hall High School is also mak­ing strides towards more com­mu­ni­ca­tion among stu­dents and fac­ul­ty. Prin­ci­pal Dan Zit­toun told the board how they gath­ered dif­fer­ent stu­dent groups, such as Eng­lish lan­guage learn­ers, LGBTQ+ stu­dents, and stu­dents of col­or, to talk to fac­ul­ty about their expe­ri­ences at Hall High. Accord­ing to Zit­toun, this was an empow­er­ing expe­ri­ence for the staff and the stu­dents. “To get that per­spec­tive was empow­er­ing and some­thing the staff hadn’t heard in a while,” said Zittoun.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion goes even fur­ther when these schools look at dis­ci­pline strate­gies on an indi­vid­ual basis.

Both Zit­toun and Duarte told the board how hav­ing con­ver­sa­tions not only with the stu­dents but with the par­ents is key to find­ing solu­tions in some dis­ci­pline cas­es. Duarte said that at Conard, some­times dis­ci­pli­nary action will be adjust­ed to bet­ter ben­e­fit the stu­dent. “Some­times instead of a four-hour deten­tion we will set up a meet­ing with the school coun­selor,” said Duarte.

Anoth­er impor­tant char­ac­ter­is­tic of school safe­ty dis­cussed at the board meet­ing was col­lab­o­ra­tion: col­lab­o­ra­tion with West Hart­ford police, par­ents, and stu­dents to keep them safe.

Secu­ri­ty Direc­tor Eric Den­cy detailed spe­cif­ic areas of school’s safe­ty and secu­ri­ty plans.

The first of these safe­ty plans Den­cy men­tioned was tech­nol­o­gy and build­ing safe­ty. Accord­ing to Den­cy, they are fin­ish­ing up the school-wide cam­era project that includes exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or cam­eras through­out every school. Addi­tion­al­ly, iPads that were giv­en to the West Hart­ford Police Depart­ment allows police to mon­i­tor events on the fields and in the schools in real time.

Accord­ing to Den­cy, all schools have received bleed con­trol kits. These kits hold tourni­quets, chest seals, gauze, and “any­thing you need to poten­tial­ly save a life in a cri­sis sit­u­a­tion” said Den­cy. “These kits are the next evo­lu­tion in the med­ical phase.”

Besides tech­nol­o­gy advances, anoth­er impor­tant part of safe­ty and secu­ri­ty plan­ning is work­ing with stu­dents, par­ents, and the police to keep stu­dents and fac­ul­ty edu­cat­ed and pre­pared for emer­gency sit­u­a­tions. Den­cy empha­sized the impor­tance of keep­ing the stu­dents active and engaged in drills and con­ver­sa­tion. One method to incite this con­ver­sa­tion is “table-top exer­cis­es.” In these exer­cis­es, stu­dents are giv­en a sce­nario deal­ing with safe­ty and secu­ri­ty, and they brain­storm how they would han­dle that situation.

“We didn’t want to dis­rupt student’s rou­tines or days,” said Super­in­ten­dent Tom Moore, “but now we know we have to.” Prepa­ra­tion is crit­i­cal, and teach­ers have to make deci­sions in tough sit­u­a­tions about their kids, and it is up to the kids and teach­ers to decide how to han­dle them, said Moore.

“If stu­dents trust that we want to do what’s best, then we can do that work togeth­er,” said Zit­toun. “At the heart of school safe­ty is the rela­tion­ships we have with our stu­dents and that they have with adults.”

By Ryley McGinnis

MANSFIELD, Conn. — The Board of Education’s pre­vi­ous attempts to make changes to the Mans­field schools have failed for lack of sup­port, but this time they GRAMMAR have employed an out­side con­sult­ing group to include com­mu­ni­ty input.

The board start­ed WORD CHOICE a facil­i­ty plan­ning study to assess the public’s opin­ion on the needs of the town’s aging ele­men­tary schools and mid­dle school. Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group from Boston was select­ed PASSIVE for out­side consulting.

The cost of the con­sult­ing group is cov­ered by the “Busi­ness Man­age­ment” sec­tion of the Super­in­ten­dent’s AP STYLE pro­posed 2017–2018 bud­get which is on Mans­field Pub­lic Schools’ web­site. This has a bud­get of $473,450, but no spe­cif­ic num­ber was giv­en for the cost of the Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group. 

“We select­ed Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group through a com­pet­i­tive bid­ding process; more than a dozen firms respond­ed but we select­ed this group because they are more of a plan­ning and strate­gic actions kind of firm as opposed to an archi­tec­tur­al firm,” said Super­in­ten­dent Kel­ly Lyman.

The board is using the study to find a real­is­tic solu­tion to the struc­tur­al issues of the four schools, built in the 1950s and 60s AP STYLE, said Kathy Ward, board chair. 

Some peo­ple agree with the use of a con­sult­ing group this time around, while oth­ers believe it should be a more inside job.

“I think it’s a good idea, it’s good to gauge the population’s opin­ions and get a feel for what they want,” said Richard Weyel, a res­i­dent and sec­ond grade teacher at Good­win Ele­men­tary School.

On the oth­er hand, Nan­cy Titchen, an enrich­ment teacher at Good­win Ele­men­tary, said the issue should have stayed with­in the town. 

Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group has spent two days on site con­duct­ing pri­vate inter­views, except for town council’s meet­ing which was pub­lic, with stake­hold­ers on the issue, said Lyman. 

Stake­hold­ers include the board, town coun­cil, par­ents, teach­ers and tax­pay­ers, Lyman said. 

“We haven’t got­ten any feed­back yet. This is the next step that will prob­a­bly hap­pen in two or two and a half weeks,” said Lyman.

Accord­ing to pub­lic meet­ing min­utes, two mem­bers of the con­sult­ing group met with mem­bers of the Town Coun­cil on April 5, 2017 to talk about the pur­pose of the study.

The con­sult­ing group said it wants to cre­ate a vision of what the com­mu­ni­ty wants in its schools and as part of the learn­ing experience.

“I have to keep an open mind; if I don’t, the whole point of the con­sult­ing group meet­ing with peo­ple and get­ting their opin­ions won’t work,” said May­or Paul Shapiro.

Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group also held a pub­lic forum on March 13 and April 5, said Ward. There were no meet­ing min­utes from this forum. 

“We want schools that are meant for the 21st cen­tu­ry, and the cur­rent build­ings are aging, not ener­gy effi­cient and not con­ducive for this,” said Ward.

“The cur­rent schools were built on a dif­fer­ent mod­el of learn­ing. They don’t lend them­selves well to team teach­ing and lack flex­i­ble spaces for learn­ing,” said Weyel. 

Ward said even when the town fig­ures out what is best, changes could still be lim­it­ed by avail­able funds.

“We try to be fis­cal­ly respon­si­ble and not to spend mon­ey where it isn’t nec­es­sary,” said Ward.

Along with Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group’s work, Lyman said the board will assess the mechan­ics of the schools, includ­ing the plumb­ing, floors and any­thing to do with the con­di­tion of the buildings.

It will pro­vide cost assess­ments to keep up the old schools over the long term, said Maria Capri­o­la, Assis­tant Town Manager.

“Most of the con­cern at the pub­lic forums Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group held was mak­ing sure that we didn’t repeat what hap­pened last time,” said Lyman.

In Jan­u­ary 2006, the town cre­at­ed a spe­cial build­ing com­mit­tee that looked at the state of the build­ings which lead the board to pro­pose that the three ele­men­tary schools be con­sol­i­dat­ed into one brand new school, said Capriola.

“It didn’t get any sup­port from the com­mu­ni­ty, so the issue was put on hold,” said Capriola.

Accord­ing to 2006–2007 meet­ing min­utes of the com­mit­tee, most of the issues with the schools involved a lack of space for spe­cial edu­ca­tion learn­ing, com­put­er labs and struc­tur­al issues with the buildings. 

Con­sol­i­dat­ing the ele­men­tary schools from three schools into one and ren­o­vat­ing the mid­dle school was one of four options, and it was the cheap­est at $21 mil­lion, accord­ing to the meet­ing min­utes on August 20, 2008.

The oth­er options were to repair and main­tain the four schools at $25 mil­lion, com­plete­ly ren­o­vate the ele­men­tary schools with lim­it­ed addi­tions and ren­o­vate the mid­dle school for $51 mil­lion, or com­plete­ly ren­o­vate two of the ele­men­tary schools with full addi­tions and ren­o­vate the mid­dle school for $45 million. 

After an ini­tial infor­ma­tion meet­ing in March 2010 where the build­ing com­mit­tee rec­om­mend­ed con­sol­i­dat­ing, they had to recon­sid­er the one school option and chose to look into build­ing two new ele­men­tary schools. 

How­ev­er, in March 2011, Town Coun­cil vot­ed not to send the issue to ref­er­en­dum based on con­cerns from the com­mu­ni­ty about cost, tax­es and the effect on the town, accord­ing to March 14, 2011, meet­ing minutes.

Ward said that this time is different.

“We are try­ing our best to make sure this is a col­lab­o­ra­tion of all of the stake­hold­ers in the issue, not just a board deci­sion to be rub­ber-stamped,” said Ward.

Ward and Lyman are meet­ing reg­u­lar­ly with Shapiro and Town Man­ag­er Matthew Hart to ass­es the issue and the study’s find­ings, Ward said.

This will hope­ful­ly give a for the future of the schools and could pos­si­bly lead to build­ing new schools to replace the old ones, Capri­o­la said.

“For the Town Coun­cil specif­i­cal­ly, last time we weren’t involved until the very tail end. This time around we are get­ting involved ear­li­er,” said Shapiro.

After the Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group is done with its assess­ment, Ward said the board will cre­ate a vision com­mit­tee of about 12 people.

This com­mit­tee will con­sist of par­ents and mem­bers of the board and will help take the infor­ma­tion the Dis­trict Man­age­ment Group gath­ered to see what is a real­is­tic and afford­able option for the schools.

“I’m on the fence about the issue, I can see both sides. How­ev­er, teach­ing the­o­ry has evolved over-time. We are try­ing to indi­vid­u­al­ize and max­i­mize every child’s poten­tial and we need a change for that,” said Weyel.