Opposing Response to Letter Received from Trinity Hall Supporter Lisa Calandrino

Before posting my response, I am going to quote a few sections of Lisa's letter:  Lisa writes "A Catholic education isn’t for everyone, but in retrospect it was important for me. An all-girls college education was equally important to me and an opportunity I wish was available as a Middletown resident in high school.............
When it came time to send my daughter to high school it was her decision where to go. She probably wouldn’t admit it, but she saw first-hand how well a single-sex Catholic high school education was working out for her older brother at CBA and I believe it is why she chose Trinity Hall.I can’t fathom why something as innocuous and positive as a relatively small faith-based all girls’ high school moving into someone else’s backyard or neighborhood would cause them distress. I live within steps of Thompson Middle School and it doesn’t make me feel any less safe. I also live within steps of Nut Swamp Elementary and I do not believe the new athletic field has had an adverse impact on the environment. I am less than a minute drive to Oak Hill Academy but don’t see where it’s location has had an adverse impact on my taxes or property value and I live less than a two minute drive to Middletown South High School and don’t see where the traffic it generates has had a negative impact on my quality of life."

The following is my response:  Hello Lisa, First, I would like to make it clear that I am not opposed to the school itself. I am opposed to the proposed location. I respect your decision to send your daughter to this school and I hope that she does really well. As I previously stated, I am against building the school on Chapel Hill Rd. I live in Chapel Hill very close to the proposed permanent location. With that being said, I would like to clarify that Trinity Hall is not a Catholic School! It has not been recognized by the Bishop of Trenton. There are several real Catholic Schools in the area. However, that is not my real issue. Chapel Hill Rd. is nothing like Middletown-Lincroft Rd, which is where both Thompson Middle School and Nut Swamp elementary are located. Middletown-Lincroft Rd. is a County Road with several lights. Both Thompson Middle School and Nut Swamp school are on the corner of a major intersection that has traffic lights. In addition, neither of those schools has a driveway a few feet away from a development on a narrow road. Chapel Hill Rd. is a windy, narrow, dangerous country road that cannot and should not support the traffic that this school will generate. This will become a dangerous situation for the children that live in my area. Also, I have been on Middletwon-Lincroft Road in the vicinity of Thompson and Nut Swamp Schools at the beginning of the school day and at dismissal. The traffic is a nightmare during these times! It takes an extra 10 minutes to get down that road at those times since you must wait for cars, buses and children crossing the road by crossing guards ! In addition, Middletown South causes traffic issues and quality of life issues. As an example, The North vs. South Thanksgiving Day football game was held at South this year and the parking and traffic were an absolute nightmare for the people living in the Brasch Farms development. This is just one example. The same thing happens for the weekly football games, track meets, etc. Everyone uses the back/ emergency vehicle entrance and parks all over the local streets in the Brasch Farms development! This is what would happen on Stavola Rd. and to Mohican Drive, Iroquois Drive and Comanche Drive during the athletic and theater performance events at Trinity Hall. The track and indoor pool that Trinity is proposing will have significant impacts on the quality of life of those living in the surrounding developments. This will cause noise and dangerous traffic and traffic jams. Neither Nut Swamp nor Thompson have a track or indoor pool, so you can not provide any insight on this! The influx of hundreds of families attending,competing and observing these meets will cause tremendous traffic on Chapel Hill Rd. and will hinder the local residents from entering or exiting their neighborhood. In addition, when the theater is buillt, that will bring additional traffic for practices and performances. Athletic events and theater performances will not be contained to the 400 -500 girls attending the school but this will include traffic from all competing teams, and theater goers from public and private schools, as is stated on the Trinity website.You may not be aware of this, but there was a fatality of a recent high school graduate during the summer a few years ago, about 50 feet away from the proposed driveway and right outside of the proposed track. Finally, I would like to say that as a life- long Middletown resident, I would implore you to urge the Trinity Hall founders to re-purpose an abandoned business site or closed school for their permanent location rather than permanently wipe out one of the few remaining, beautiful, open spaces that Middletown has left. I ask you to think of the beauty of the Chapel Hill area and to think of an alternate (existing) location to place this school. We need to work together to preserve all of our open space.