By Brian McCready
Milford Bureau Chief
MILFORD — Joseph Della Monica Jr. has a frank assessment of East Shore Middle School: “It’s just nasty.”
Della Monica, a city police sergeant and the father of two children who attend the school, backs up his blunt critique by saying the school is overcrowded, has stained ceiling tiles, mismatched color floor tiles, and is permeated by the smell of raw sewage.
“Fix the ... school,” Della Monica said. “I don’t live here for a substandard school. I’ll be all over these people until they correct the problems. There will not be one day of peace until it’s all corrected.”
At a Board of Education meeting this week, Superintendent of Schools Harvey B. Polansky addressed concerns raised by school staff and parents.
Polansky said the district spent about $12,000 to eradicate the smell in the school. He said the odor came from the kitchen’s grease trap, which was cleaned.
The building tiles were installed in 1952, and when they break, they are replaced. Polansky said it’s not always possible to match the tiles’ color. He added that the floor tiles contain asbestos and cannot simply be removed.
Polansky said the roof has leaked and has been repaired and re-patched several times over its 56-year lifespan. He said maintenance responds whenever a leak is noticed.
The temperature throughout the school can vary because only part of the school is exposed to direct sunlight, he said.
Della Monica, a former Republican town chairman, said once a letter on the matter appeared in last week’s Milford Weekly, about 13 maintenance workers arrived at the school the following day.
East Shore is overcrowded and students are forced into classrooms that are smaller than they were in elementary school, he said.
The middle school has about 70 more students than the city’s two other middle schools.
Della Monica said school officials must ask the city for bond authorization to complete improvements.
School officials have said East Shore needs renovations, but upgrades to the city’s two high schools are the top priority.
Della Monica said the overcrowding is best chronicled by the fact that students have to walk outside after lunch because the hallway is too crowded.
Polansky said there are three lunch waves at East Shore, each of which is 25 minutes long, and nearly 200 students and staff occupy the cafeteria in each wave. School officials believe that since students enter and exit the same hallway, it was best to allow them to go outside and walk 25 yards to another door at the end of the building.
School officials said students are monitored the entire time by staff and do not go outside on days when there is snow on the ground or if it’s raining.