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SHARON — Twenty-four students graduated June 15 from Sharon Center School, with more than 200 friends and family watching in the audience.
“They are all very much loved by everyone,� Principal Karen Manning said before the ceremony. “They have strong skills and they are all ready to fly.�
Essayist Jarred Mitchell told the audience that he learned a great deal from the school.
“The honorable Malcolm X, an African-American leader, whom I envy for his resilience, once said ‘Education is the passport of the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today,’� Jarred said.
He summarized what the quote means to him, and added that, “Today I will finally accept the passport that Sharon will be presenting to me. The passport will give me a chance to move on to greater and grander things.�
The second essayist, Hailey Nelson, said. “We all know we’re leaving the school behind. But the lessons the school has left us will stay with us wherever we go. It taught us to make a difference wherever we go, with whatever we do. It taught us to set high goals because failing was not an option.�
The final essayist of the evening, Shannon Paton, spoke about the future.
“We’re all prepared to go into high school,� Shannon said. “I know this because every graduating class of Sharon Center School somehow plants themselves into the much bigger garden of [Housatonic Valley Regional High School] and other high schools and finds their places there.
“We are able to do this because we were prepared by the best. Our teachers have given us enough support in the past to make us strong so we can stand on our own in the new environment....Our school has nourished us enough, just as a garden nourishes the plants that are being transplanted into bigger gardens.�
Sharon Center School
Class of 2010
Nicholas James Eckstein
Alaa Ibrahim Elsirafy
Erik Alan Gabrielson
Elise Marie Haan
Hannah Allyson Isaac
Stephen Nicholas Kalogiannis
Mackenzie Kinsman Marks
Jarred Mitchell
Jesse Taylor Mohring
Sophie Lilian Mortman
Hailey LeAnn Nelson
Colm Michael O’Reilly
Diana Marie Paine
Shannon Rose Palmer Paton
Gabriel Joseph Plunkett
Patrick Russell Purdy
Connor Thomas Riley
Preston John Shaffer
Helen Samantha Shapiro-Albert
Maia Anne Stickles
Alex John Tripodi
Sabrina Marie Walton
William Wallace Yahn
Henry Ewert Yuliano-Cousins
Awards
American Legion Awards: Hannah Isaac and Patrick Purdy
Elizabeth Gobillot Service Award: Preston Shaffer
The Mary Holst-Grubbe Awards: Alaa Elsirafy and Patrick Purdy
Sharon Faculty Award: Helen Shapiro-Albert
The American Citizenship Awards: Sophie Mortman, Colm O’Reilly, Diana Paine, Shannon Paton, Patrick Purdy, Preston Shaffer, Helen Shapiro-Albert and William Yahn
The President’s Awards for Educational Achievement: Elise Haan, Hailey Nelson, Colm O’Reilly and Patrick Purdy
The President’s Awards for Educational Excellence: Hannah Isaac, Sophie Mortman, Shannon Paton and Helen Shapiro-Albert
The Sharon School Awards: Alaa Elsirafy and Patrick Purdy
The Sharon School Cup Award: Sophie Mortman
Sharon Lions Club Award: Shannon Paton
The Lions Club Honorary Award: Patrick Purdy
Sharon School Writing Award: Sophie Mortman and Helen Shapiro-Albert
Sharon School Foreign Language Award: Shannon Paton
The Ted Christinat Science Award: Hailey Nelson
The Sharon School Art Award: Maia Stickles
The Sharon School Musician Award: Hannah Isaac
The Jack “Compo� Comporesi Athletic Award: Alaa Elsirafy and William Yahn
Sharon Center School Eighth-Grade Honor Roll Awards: Alaa Elsirafy, Elise Haan, Hannah Isaac, Sophie Mortman, Hailey Nelson, Shannon Paton, Patrick Purdy, Connor Riley, Helen Shapiro-Albert, William Yahn
Middle School Honor Roll Awards: Elise Haan, Hannah Isaac, Sophie Mortman, Hailey Nelson, Shannon Paton, Connor Riley and Helen Shapiro-Albert
The Charlotte T. Unz Awards: Helen Shapiro-Albert and Patrick Purdy
The A.B.C.D. Awards: Elise Haan, Mackenzie Marks, Sophie Mortman, Diana Paine, Shannon Paton, Preston Shaffer, Maia Stickles, Alex Tripodi, Sabrina Walton and Henry Yuliano-Cousins
The TriArts Drama Award: Henry Yuliano-Cousins
The Sharon School Scholarship Award: Tahlia Prindle
The Secretary of the State’s Excellence in Citizenship Award: Sophie Mortman
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.