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BY MICHAEL PUFFERREPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WATERBURY — MayorNeil M. O’Leary is asking sur-rounding communities to con-sider accepting city studentsinto their schools.

O’Leary asked area mayorsand first selectmen gatheredFriday for a meeting of the

Naugatuck Valley Council ofGovernments to broach theidea with their local school of-ficials.

“I’ll know a lot more by theend of next week if there areany superintendents interest-ed,” O’Leary said after themeeting Friday. “There’s ab-solutely no sense in having anyconversations about it if super-

intendents or the Board of Ed-ucation don’t have an interest.”

O’Leary said Waterburycould use a relief valve for itsovercrowded schools. Withenrollments plummeting insome neighboring districts, aninflux of Waterbury studentscould help smaller towns

Mayor eyes area townsSharing students may alleviate overcrowding“IT JUST MAKES

GOOD SENSEECONOMICALLYAND EDUCATION-ALLY TO SHARERESOURCES.”

ELIZABETH C. BROWN WATERBURY SCHOOLBOARD PRESIDENT

See SCHOOLS, Page 7A

RepublicanAmericanFINAL $1MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2018

REP-AM.COMM

BY HARRISON CONNERYREPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

NEWTOWN

F ive storiesabove the tilefloor in New-town’s Trinity

Episcopal Church is alabyrinth of lath laid in1870 to hold its plaster ceil-ing tight.

But as the decadespassed, like a ceiling in anold house, the plaster lostits strength, started to sagand crack, and if ignored,would eventually raindown on the wooden pews.

Artech Church Interiorsof Woodbury and ValleyRestoration of Torringtonteamed up to restore theplaster ceiling, using atechnique patented by aCanadian company for thefirst time in Connecticut.

Trinity is in the middle ofa “Look Up! Ceiling Cam-

STAFF AND NEWS SERVICE REPORTS

The Northeast is bracingfor its third nor’easter in lessthan two weeks, while somepeople are still feeling the ef-fects of the last storm thatdumped more than 2 feet ofsnow in some areas and lefthundreds of thousands of cus-tomers without power.

A southern storm is expect-ed to make its way up thecoast, bringing more snowfallfrom tonight through Tues-day afternoon, the NationalWeather Service said Sun-day.

The weather service has is-sued a winter storm watch forLitchfield, New Haven andFairfield counties, with 4 to 8inches of heavy snow possiblein Greater Waterbury andmore than 6 inches in Litch-field County.

Northerly winds of 15 to 30mph and gusts up to 45 mphare also possible, once again

Anotherstormheadsour way4-8'' of snowexpected from3rd nor’easter

BY MICHAEL GAGNEREPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

On Wednesday, exactlyfour weeks after the mas-sacre of 17 people at MarjoryStoneman Douglas HighSchool in Parkland, Fla., nu-merous groups of highschool-aged students across

Connecticutare expectedto join multi-tudes of peersnationwide ina coordinatedwalkout to

press for safer schools.Argenis Herrera, a senior

and student leader at Water-bury Career Academy HighSchool, said he expects a

StudentsplanningwalkoutsWednesdayArea schools tohonor 17 killed

CHURCH CEILINGIS ‘LOOKING UP!’

PHOTOS BY STEVEN VALENTI REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Paul Bastiaanse sprays plaster during a restoration process above the ceiling at Trini-ty Church in Newtown on March 5. A patented process is being used in Connecticutfor the first time, with work by companies from Woodbury and Torrington.

Historic plaster intact in Newtown

Bastia-anse usesrags on apole togatheranyspillagefromsprayingthe plas-ter on theother sideduringrestora-tion workat thechurch.

ON THE WEB, see a videoreport of this storyat rep-am.com.

See SNOW, Page 4A

See CEILING, Page 7A

Sunshine early, thenclouding up as a newsnow storm comes intonight. Page 8A

AS EXPECTED, KEVIN OLLIE WILLAPPEAL HIS FIRING AS COACHOF THE MEN’S TEAM, PAGE 12B

Community page happeningsA new TV for seniors in Woodbury and areading program for elementary schoolstudents in Thomaston are among theitems on today’s page. PAGE 5B

Fear of contamination spreadsTraces of a nerve agent that seriouslyinjured an ex-spy and his adult daughterwere found in a restaurant, causing othersto undergo immediate testing. PAGE 5A

White-collar jobs disappearA third of the nation’s major metro areas— nearly 80 communities — are sheddinga greater percentage of white-collar thanblue-collar jobs, the AP says. PAGE 1C

Woman injured in accidentA woman from Northfield suffered seriousinjuries and three people were also hurt ina two-vehicle crash on Route 8 South inWaterbury early Sunday. PAGE 1B

High 42Low 29

Business 1-2C

Classified 5-6C

Comics 4C

Crossword 3C

Community 5B

Dear Annie 8A

Editorials 6A

Horoscope 8A

Jumble 3C

Lottery 2A

Movie times 8A

Obituaries 3-4B

Public notices 6C

Sudoku 3C

TV listings 3C

OLLIE TO FIGHT FIRING

26 pages. © 2018 Republican-American

Established 1881,

Waterbury, Connecticut

All rights reserved

Read it at rep-am.com 6 34373 12494 2

OPINION OF THE DAY: “I agree with PresidentTrump’s agenda. It’s working. However, I am embarrassedby the president’s tweets. If he loves tweets, he should buy abird feeder.” — Bobby Brzozowy, New Hartford READ THE FULL LETTER ON PAGE 6A

Bonus features at rep-am.com/webextra

>> CHURCH VIDEO Watch a video report on the ceilingrestoration work being done by companies from Woodbury andTorrington at a church in Newtown.

>> TELL YOUR FRIENDS Look for the“Share” button on stories at rep-am.com to send them tofriends via Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

>> EAT FOR FREE Enter for a chance to win a $25 gift cardfrom Fratelli’s Pizzeria in Waterbury through the Online Dining Guide.

WEB EXTRASTODAY AT REP-AM.COM

>> PresidentTrump backsoff some guncontrol ideas,Page 3A.

UCONNREADYCOACHAURIEMMAHAS WOMENSET FOR A RUNTO PERFECTION,PAGE 12B

MEN’S BRACKETS, PAGES 6-7B

See WALKOUT, Page 7A

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stave off anticipated cuts instate education grants,O’Leary said.

O’Leary has already dis-cussed the idea with WolcottMayor Thomas G. Dunn andWolcott School Superinten-dent Anthony Gasper. Dunnwas open to considering theidea, but it didn’t get far.

Gasper this week said theidea of accepting Waterburystudents would need the bless-ing of the Board of Education,but it’s not something Board ofEducation Chairwoman LoriA. DelBuono Bartlett is willingto discuss now.

“I discussed it with theboard chair and she at thistime is not interested with itbeing on the agenda,” Gaspersaid. “At this time, it’s notsomething I anticipate dis-cussing in the near future.”

Attempts to reach Del-Buono Bartlett were unsuc-cessful.

Gasper said there are toomany unanswered questionsabout how such a systemwould work. It’s unknownhow many students wouldcome, how they would be se-lected, who would pay fortransportation or how Wol-cott would be compensated.

“I would need to see a pro-gram to see if we want tosubscribe to it,” Gasper said.“There’s just far too manyunknowns at this point formy board or any board to de-termine if they are interest-ed in participation.”

O’Leary said he doesn’tquite know how the systemwould work. He’s wants to re-strict it to elementary schoolstudents. For now, he’s justtrying to gauge interest.

Waterbury has not yetcontacted the state Depart-ment of Education.

STATE OFFICIALS SAYthere are a couple possibili-ties. Waterbury could reachbilateral agreements withother districts to share stu-dents and resources. Theycould also try to launch an“Open Choice” program.

Hartford, New Haven andBridgeport currently offer

state-supported OpenChoice programs. The statepays a stipend for each stu-dent received by a suburbantown. Students are picked bylottery. The stipend variesdepending on the percent-age of city students in a sub-urban district. The greaterpercentage of city studentsin a suburban district, thelarger their stipend.

Towns accepting Hartfordstudents receive between$3,000 and $8,000 per stu-dent, according to Glen Pe-terson, education divisiondirector with the state De-partment of Education. Re-ceiving towns also get toclaim half of the incomingstudents in the formula fortheir share of the state’s Ed-ucation Cost Sharing grant.

Some suburban townstake in 150 Hartford stu-dents, Peterson said. Adding75 students to the EducationCost Sharing formula could“be worth many thousandsof dollars,” he said.

The General Assemblywould have to sign off on cre-ating another Open Choiceprogram, said Peter Yazbak,spokesman for the state De-partment of Education.

O’Leary has met with Sen.Martin M. Looney, D-NewHaven, president pro tem-pore of the Senate, to discussthe potential for sharing stu-dents to alleviate over-crowding. O’Leary said aninflux of nearly 300 PuertoRican students displaced byHurricane Maria has signifi-cantly added strain.

“Sen. Looney was encour-aged that Mayor O’Leary hadalready engaged in positivediscussions with neighboringcommunities,” Looneyspokesman Adam Josephwrote in an email. “We are

hopeful that a regional agree-ment can be reached and be-lieve that the state could behelpful, if necessary, in facili-tating such an agreement.”

O’LEARY STRESSED Water-bury school officials wouldalso have to show interest. Inthe past, some officials hadvoiced concern top-perform-ing students would drain outto neighboring districts.

Waterbury Board of Edu-cation President Elizabeth C.Brown, however, backed theidea when reached Thursday.

“I think it makes goodsense, with shrinking enroll-ments in the suburbs and ourenrollment is increasing,”Brown said. “It just makesgood sense economically andeducationally to share re-sources.”

Woodbury First Select-man William J. Butterly saidhe’s interested in exploringthe potential, although thedecision rests with school of-ficials. Butterly said he wasreassured by O’Leary thatreceiving schools wouldn’thave to keep students whoturned out to be disciplineproblems.

“The thing that made it re-ally palatable to the peoplewho were listening is theywould remain students ofthe Waterbury school sys-tem,” Butterly said.

THE IDEA IS ATTRACTIVEto some in Waterbury.

Domenic A. Davino Jr.lives in the city’s East End.He has two children en-rolled in Rotella MagnetSchool. He’s happy withRotella, but worries aboutwhat will happen if his chil-dren aren’t successful get-ting into a magnet school formiddle school, where he’sheard of discipline and dis-order problems.

Davino said he’d like achance to send his childrento school with their friendsin neighboring Wolcott. Buthe’s also admitted concernfor how they’d be received.

“Some parents will havebad comments and theirkids will hear it,” Davinosaid.

SCHOOLS: Overflow to towns?Continued from Page One

MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2018 M REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN 7A

Should suburban districtstake Waterbury students to help solve decliningenrollments and state aid?

FIND RESULTS OF YESTERDAY’SQUESTION ON PAGE 2A.

TODAY’S POLLVOTE ONLINE AT REP-AM.COM

paign” to restore its sanctu-ary to its original splendor.

The stone church standsatop a hill where it com-mands a central position intown, towering over the flag-pole where Church Hill Roadand Main Street intersect.

“For generations, Trinityhas been a sacred space, aplace to pray, a place to wor-ship, a place to gather, for allpeople,” said Jennifer Mont-gomery, priest in charge.“We came down on the sideof historical preservation be-cause it’s a way to honor thework of our forefathers andmothers in building this sa-cred space.”

Artech is repainting thenave and Valley Restorationtackled the plaster and whatlies above.

Paul Bastiaanse, the ownerof Valley Restoration, saidtheir two-week plaster repaircompleted Friday is the firstof its kind in Connecticut. Heis licensed to use HistoricPlaster Conservation Ser-vices products in New Eng-land. The Canadian companyhas patented methods allow-ing plaster repair without re-moving the plaster.

AS ARTECH PAINTERSSTOOD atop 20-foot laddersin the nave beneath them ona recent afternoon, Basti-aanse and his crew of fourworked in the attic five sto-ries above the street.

The attic is accessible onlyby an exterior scaffoldingerected up the steeple or aladder rising through thepipes of the church organ to atrap door.

“This is 1870s plaster, it’s asystem, so the whole plasterceiling is all connected,” saidBastiaanse, pointing to hair-line cracks in the white ceil-ing. “So a lot of people just goahead and put some plasterthere and that’s it, but theproblem is the lug-and-keysare failed so they have a riskof falling down and losing thewhole history of the plaster.”

Bastiaanse said a plaster-on-wood-lath ceiling, like

Trinity’s, is suspended fromthe wood lath substrate hold-ing it up, not adhered to it.The plaster is molded intokeys that slump over theback of the lugs, effectivelyturning them into hooks fromwhich the plaster is suspend-ed. Over time the plasterbreaks, increasing pressureon the intact keys. Eventual-ly, the ceiling falls.

“A lot of people would putsheet rock or screws in,which fix the symptom, notthe problem,” he said.

INSIDE THE ATTIC, the ceil-ing slopes away from theridge beam so workersstrapped on harnesses andhooked themselves to a pul-ley system to prevent themfrom falling through — a riskif they stepped off the rafters.Illuminated by two strings ofconstruction lights hung overthe ridge beam, they crawledlike spiders over the cen-turies-old ceiling, testingplaster keys by shaking themand tossing away those thatsnapped.

Historic Plaster Conserva-tion Services is a Canadiancompany founded in 1988 toconserve architectural plaster.

The company patentedseveral products and tools —micro-jacks to hold up ceil-ings, an adhesive gel-syringegun, adhesives and a remoteapplicator to treat ceilingsfrom blind locations.

“Historic plaster has bothaesthetic and practical val-ue,” said Neal Mednick, acompany spokesman. “In vir-tually all cases it’s worth pre-serving.”

Restoring the plaster is athree step process of spray-ing the plaster with a waterand acrylic resin mix. Thefirst spray is mostly waterand is designed to penetrateall the layers of plaster andwood substrate. The secondis half resin and water andthe third is all resin. As thewater evaporates the resinadheres over the plaster andwood substrate, connectingall the plaster into a singlecohesive unit. Then, the bro-ken keys are fixed with a cus-

tom caulk gun.“These are specially for-

mulated acrylic resins topenetrate into the plaster,there are two objectives,” hesaid. “One is to strengthenthe plaster matrix, whichover time becomes powderyand weak, and the other is toconsolidate the plaster ontothe wood lath.”

He said the consolidationtransforms the ceiling from aweak suspension system to astrong adhered system.

“What’s important is theacrylic resins are inherentlyflexible,” he said. “If theywere not flexible this proce-dure would not work.”

Tom Burns, Historic Plas-ter Conservation Servicesrepresentative for the NewEngland region and owner ofArtech Church Interiors, saidflexibility is important tokeep the plaster from crack-ing as the building sways.

THE PLASTER DATES to theconstruction of the buildingin 1870, although the churchwas founded in 1732. Origi-nally, it convened in a 28-by-24-foot structure near thecorner of Main Street andGlover Avenue. In 1746 alarger building was con-structed on the west side ofMain Street before the stonestructure in use today wasbuilt.

Paul Bastiaanse’s late fa-ther, Robert Bastiaanse,founded Valley Restorationabout 1965. Bastiaanse, 40,and his brother Mark pickedup the trade by helping theirfather with projects.

Christopher Wigren,deputy director of the Con-necticut Trust for HistoricPreservation, said preservingoriginal or old materialswherever possible is impor-tant because small insignifi-cant changes over time cansignificantly change the feelof a building.

“The building is very im-portant to its congregationand the community as welland we’re very happy they’retaking good care of it to con-tinue to serve the communi-ty,” he said.

CEILING: A first for ConnecticutContinued from Page One

STEVEN VALENTI REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Mark Bastiaanse uses rags on a pole to gather any spillage from spraying the plaster on theother side during a restoration process above the ceiling at the Trinity Church in Newtown.

turnout of at least 200 stu-dents at his school to partici-pate during a walkout thatwill take place on schoolgrounds at 10 a.m.

Herrera said the goal is toappeal to lawmakers to “im-plement safety laws that areknown to be effective.”

Local politicians have alsobeen invited to participate,but as of last week, Herrerasaid he hadn’t yet heard back.

“But I am hopeful,” he said.Meanwhile, he said hisschool’s administrators have“been extremely supportive”of students’ plans. PrincipalLouis Padua confirmed thatsupport in an email to the Re-publican-American.

Several schools have regis-tered their events with theWomen’s March Action Net-work website, which calls onstudents, teachers, adminis-trators, parents and others toparticipate in a national walk-out for 17 minutes — repre-senting the number of victims— at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Waterbury Chief AcademicOfficer Darren Schwartz toldBoard of Education commis-

sioners during a recent boardworkshop that when schoolofficials learned of nationalwalkouts planned for thismonth and in April, discus-sions were held among ad-ministrators and with policeabout how to accommodateboth participating and non-participating students.

“I support it. I wholeheart-edly support it,” said KateRockefeller, the mother of a17-year-old Terryville HighSchool student, of a similarevent planned at her daugh-ter’s school. “It’s insane whatthis generation has had todeal with.”

Rockefeller said TerryvilleHigh School administratorsappear to support students’activities, so long as it’s non-political.

“I don’t think it’s my placeto disallow,” Rockefellersaid, adding the event willtake place on school property,and will have low impact asfar as missing class goes.

According to the website,similar events were planned atCheshire High School, Pom-peraug High School, Rocham-beau Middle School in South-bury and Torrington High

School.Meanwhile, prayer servic-

es are planned at Water-bury’s Catholic high schools,Sacred Heart and Holy Cross,according to leaders at bothschools.

In Naugatuck, high schoolPrincipal Janice Saam and Po-lice Lt. Bryan Cammarata saidso far they had not heard ofplans to stage a walkout there.

At Kaynor Technical HighSchool, students hadn’t ex-pressed plans as of last week,Principal David Telesca said.

In Wolcott, middle- andhigh-school students willhave the option to participatein a supervised walk that willtake place on school grounds,said Superintendent AnthonyGasper.

“At my urging, the princi-pals have instructed the staffthat the school system is nottaking a pro- or anti-stance ongun control through this ac-tivity,” Gasper wrote, whileadding teachers may use theevent as a teachable momentto discuss the history of civildisobedience in democracy.

Contact Michael Gagne atmgagne@rep-am.com.

WALKOUT: 17-minute dissentContinued from Page One