Quantcast
Advertisement

Rivera asserts Briggs would be better off in another location

December 16, 2014
–
Nancy Guenther Chapman
Briggs High School.
Briggs High School.

NORWALK, Conn. – The best thing to do with Briggs High School would be to rebrand it and move it to a location closer to its student body, Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Manny Rivera said.

“It’s premature for me to put out here, but I am still convinced that their current site is problematic. The facility itself has many problems,” Rivera said at last week’s Board of Education Finance Committee meeting.

Although there have been many improvements the enrollment at Norwalk’s alternative high school is still not what it needs to be, Rivera said, adding that the state met him at Briggs two or three weeks ago for a discussion about what to do.

“I am still not pleased with the connection between our two main high schools and Briggs. I think we can tighten that up quite a bit in terms of how we communicate with students. You really want students to be choosing that as an alternative. There is still unfortunately the perception of Briggs, kind of a negative one that it has had for years in the past. I think that needs to change. The only way that changes over time is you have more and more students, they are successful and engaged and they’re learning,” Rivera said.

Briggs is located on Main Avenue, not far from the Merritt Parkway interchange.

“We could change the name and have a different facility,” he said.

“Briggs is going to be Briggs because no matter what we change the name to, somebody is always going to remember it’s Briggs,” BoE member Rosa Murray said.

She said the students have a home in Briggs and it wouldn’t be right to put the high school inside another school building.

Rivera said many students take two or three buses to get to Briggs.

“That has impact on attendance,” he said. “It’s problematic. We want to make sure that is addressed as well. … We are looking at a couple of options for Briggs, in terms of potential relocation.”

More Stories

Comments

10 responses to “Rivera asserts Briggs would be better off in another location”

  1. Lifelong Teacher

    There does need to be a change to the name, location, and most if all, program. I’ve been involved with NPS for 25 years. Briggs is known as the place kids go when they can’t make it anywhere else. It’s isolated from everything. Marie Allen has done a wonderful job transforming the school. More needs to be done.

  2. Nora King

    Once again Rosa Murray is not seeing the bigger picture or understanding what is in the best interest of children and what is right for 5 or 10 years down the road. She is an obstructionist.

    Our schools are in bad shape and we would really benefit from having a long term plan on the capital improvements, attendance and functionality of community needs for all schools. Many towns and cities instead of renovating lease building space that might be more beneficial. We should be looking at all our options for the short term and long term.

    All BOE members need to keep their minds open. Rosa obviously cannot do this. As a parent I want board members that think outside of the box and explore our options.

  3. Mike Lyons

    BTW, we have a $100,000 facilities utilization study under way to fully evaluate our buildings. There is also funding earmarked specifically for Briggs evaluation (from last year’s BoE budget surplus), which could cover anything from renovation of the building to establishing a new location.

  4. fedUP

    what is the total student body of Briggs again?

  5. MarjorieM

    What is the average attendance at Briggs. The total student body is one figure, but average daily attendance is very different.

  6. EveT

    What is the reason for wanting to change the name? Isn’t it named in honor of Dr. Richard C. Briggs, a longtime superintendent?

  7. concerned student

    Why not reconstruct the building, make Briggs a tech school.
    Do you know how many Briggs students have graduated from the programs there?
    Provide a bus to help with transportation, this city has children bused out of their neighborhood’s due to redistricting modifications, and you really feel teenagers can’t jump on a bus and make it to school, let’s be real here, you have a very diverse culture of teens who need more than traditional teaching to hold their interest, at this point anything Rosa Murray say’s you guys are
    going to put down always in the negative.
    let’s focus on the Teens, if we make Briggs an actual trade and tech school it would work, some children excel better learning a trade.
    Wright Tech in Stamford used to be known as the school for bad kids, yet look how many Electricians, Beauticians, Lpn’s,
    etc…. have graduated from the school.
    you have teens walking the street who are musicians, artists, photographers, singers, computer geeks, designers, graphic Artists just to name a few of the skills, why not hone in on these skills, help the teens accomplish something, peak their interest.
    Stop beating a dead horse, everyone has heard the stories about the board of ed, by continuing to keep it going you merely transition the focus from the teenagers and onto issues that have nothing to do with the kids at all.
    or is that the intent, and this is all a smoke screen?

    change begins with one’s self, maybe we should all start leading by example.

    Where ever you move the school, you are going to have the same results unless the teaching criteria changes.

  8. Dr. Susan G. Weinberger

    What’s in a name? Briggs High School was named for Dr. Richard C. Briggs, our beloved and inspirational Superintendent of Schools for many years. This building has served for decades as a suitable way to honor his dedication to quality education in Norwalk. Would you think it is time to change the name of Brien McMahon High School and forget its origin? No, it is not the name that needs to be changed. The best we could do to honor Dr. Briggs going forward is to make some curriculum modifications and changes in perception. I bet the current students could come up with an award winning creative project to improve the image of their school.

  9. Mike Lyons

    I knew Dr. Briggs personally, and I agree with Dr. Weinberger – the solution is having the school live up to the name (whether located in the current location in a renovated building, or in another location).

    We’ve made a lot of improvements to Briggs’ educational program in the last couple of years (see https://norwalkcurrent.com/2013/05/briggs-high-turnaround-plan-ready-for-commissioners-network-program and https://norwalkcurrent.com/2014/03/briggs-high-school-progress-touted-by-students-administrators), though obviously more needs to be done.

    fedUP, the student body at Briggs is about 80, though the hope is to get it up to 200 (Marj is right that attendance is different, but I don’t have that number handy).

    student, the linked articles give some sense of where we want Briggs to go, which is definitely in the technical school direction.

  10. Karen

    Dr Rivera is correct that we are in need of a rebranding and as is obvious, a facility relocation. Think Ben Franklin has possibilities and isnt way uptown. No disrespect for Dr Briggs but cmon, if you grew up here than you know Briggs rep, which has always been “where they toss the ones that the district gave up on.” Harsh? Yes but its a fact. A rebranding is needed.

    Yes Briggs is Briggs and has a rep going back to the 70’s, at least and that rep is not what we want to project, going forward.
    Is it?

    So concur with Dr Rivera that we are in need of a rebranding, a restart. We can use this name change as an opportunity to be inclusive and bring everyone together. Can hold contests, even an quasi election at the School with some sort of awards to all who participate. The students need to know we haven’t given up and we are going to do better to help all students find there niche and go on to be life learners.

    Vote YES to hit restart and let the kids know, we do care and we will do better, much better.

    Think student above is spot on also. We need to pump them up, not tear them down. To help each individual student, discover and explore born talent and skills that students have or don’t know they have, is to connect and help them see the possibilities.

Leave a Reply

Newsletter

Secret Link