To the editor: As a lifetime resident, taxpayer and graduate of Taconic High School, I am fully aware of the distrust constantly provoked by our elected officials.
The recent article on the decision to segregate high school students by curriculum is another in a long in line of false, misdirected narratives. ("The Pittsfield School Committee has unanimously approved Taconic High School's transition to a vocational education," Eagle, Jan. 31.)
We were told Taconic was a failing structure, and updates would be too economically unsound. New construction was deemed as the only financially acceptable answer. While this might have been true, underlying intent was to eliminate a cohesive student body served by vocational and non-vocational courses. The reality is this is another back door, behind-the-scenes grasp to save the dome: As enrollment declines at Pittsfield High School, short-sighted officials trusted with economic stability for residents and taxpayers of this city have once again failed. Presented with new high school construction, thoughts of a singular high school campus were ignored.
As a result, time and time again we are presented with proposals to fund multiple updates to an aging and dated facility. Have cost studies for transportation of students from the four corners of the city to the two campus destinations have been addressed? Has the transport of students from further distances been brought into consideration?
Too late to consider cost of two campuses versus one — once again, short-sighted tunnel vision by the “leaders” of our city.
Timothy Rapkowicz, Pittsfield