MIDDLETOWN — CT Examiner obtained copies of 15 anonymous complaints against top school officials that offer details not included in the executive summary released on Monday of a recently concluded investigation requested by the Board of Education. Over 35 single-spaced pages, the complainants allege that top district administrators engaged in...
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MIDDLETOWN — An independent investigation into claims of harassment and a hostile work environment within the district supports certain claims of misconduct by three of the district’s four senior administrators — including sexual harassment, unprofessional and retaliatory behavior and failure to effectively enforce COVID-19 protocols. The findings were summarized in...
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...to challenge Russell in an August primary if they choose to do so. In the bid for the nomination for Secretary of the State, Rep. Stephanie Thomas, of Norwalk received 66 percent of the delegates while Sen. Matt Lesser, of Middletown, got 33 percent after three rounds of voting were...
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...which will allow the wider population to decide who they want their standard bearer to be,” Ken Nowell, a Torrington resident, said. Rogers Pylant of Middletown, who said he supports Levy, said having three people in the primary shows the Republican party reflects a broad “bench” of viewpoints. Thomas Amatruda,...
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...young legislator told of the recent choking and BB-gun shooting assault of his kindergarten-age nephew by a teenager, and offered this assessment of what the proper punishment should be for the attacker. “There is no answer for that,” Middletown Democratic State Rep. Quentin Williams said before voting against the bill....
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MIDDLETOWN — An avid birder and supporter of the preservation of Deer Lake filed suit in Middlesex Superior Court yesterday against the Connecticut Yankee Council of the Boy Scouts of America stating that the bird sanctuary on the property must be protected and that the council has received substantial charitable...
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...came this month when the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee approved a $9 million damage lawsuit settlement with the family of a patient at the state’s hospital for the criminally insane, Whiting Forensic Institute in Middletown. A tipster reported grotesque abuse of the patient by many hospital staff members. Surveillance video...
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...the Connecticut National Guard Readiness Center in Putnam, public schools in Norwalk and Shelton, the Middletown Department of Public Works Tradesman Building, the Colchester Senior Center, and the Waterbury Water Pollution Control Facility, Eversource said. “Eversource was caught within a proverbial ‘Catch 22’ because it had agreed to refrain from...
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MIDDLETOWN — The town’s superintendent and Board of Education pushed back hard against recent charges by Mayor Ben Florsheim that the proposed school budget shows a lack of investment in school staff and a lack of transparency. An eight-page document signed by Superintendent Alberto Vazquez-Matos and Board Chair Deborah Cain...
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MIDDLETOWN — Mayor Ben Florsheim said in a public address on Friday that he could not support the Board of Education’s proposed budget increase, and called for an independent audit of the board’s financial practices. Florsheim’s comments were in response to a vote on Thursday by the board to increase the...
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...is unprecedented in the ten-ish years that I’ve been in Connecticut.” Maryellen Shuckerow, executive director of St. Vincent De Paul in Middletown, a Catholic organization that helps homeless people find housing, said that the rent hikes were the product of “a perfect storm.” With fewer people moving during the pandemic...
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MIDDLETOWN – The message from a developer looking to build apartments downtown was clear: if Middletown wants more people living in its commercial center, it is going to need to deal with parking. Two separate proposals from different developers would add a combined 65 apartments near the intersection of Main...
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MIDDLETOWN — The Board of Education voted on Tuesday to approve the replacement of the high school turf and track field and to forward the project to a building committee for more in-depth study on the benefits of different types of athletic fields. “[The building committee] will be able to...
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MIDDLETOWN — Acting Superintendent Alberto Vazquez-Matos said yesterday that he intends to have 25-minute breaks for recess reinstated in the schools after the students return from April break. Vazquez-Matos said at a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday that he is working with Middletown Federation of Teachers, the district’s teacher’s...
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MIDDLETOWN — Students at Wesleyan University today announced their intention to form a union for student workers in the Office of Residential Life. The university said in a statement today that it is willing to “commence the process of voluntarily recognizing that group’s effort to unionize.” “Forming a union will...
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MIDDLETOWN – A key building in the center of Main Street that has eluded redevelopment for years could find new life if a new plan proposed by a Woodbridge-based developer for 48 apartments, retail space and offices comes to fruition. Real estate investor David Marasow applied to the Middletown Planning...
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...never addressing the fact that college tuition has risen 4.6 times the rate of inflation. It’s outrageous what medical facilities and doctors charge. I don’t blame the undocumented mothers wanting to get their kids healthcare, sure, just like the rest of us, they can’t afford it. Matt Malecot Middletown, CT...
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...if I don’t pay the full amount up front,” Salvatierra, a member of Hartford Deportation Defense, said during a webinar hosted by the Husky 4 Immigrants coalition last week. State Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown and State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford also attended the webinar. Both said that healthcare should...
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...overcome,” Poland said. According to the report, 8 percent, or 6,733, of all housing units in the region are counted as affordable housing by the state, with 71 percent of those units located in Middletown. In the remaining towns, 3.31 percent are counted as affordable by the state. As of...
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MIDDLETOWN — Multiple fights at the middle and high school that left at least one student injured have prompted calls from parents for greater transparency and more involvement on the part of the administration. Jessie Lavorgna, the communications director for the Middletown Public Schools, confirmed that two “physical altercations” —...
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...have found themselves overwhelmed. Additionally, she said, the statewide legalization of marijuana has sent more cases to the bureaus. In January, Justin Carbonella, Youth Services Coordinator at the Middletown Youth Service Bureau, told CT Examiner that the Youth Services Bureaus need greater infrastructure support. In particular, he said, he’d like...
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...blizzard last weekend and forecasted ice storm this coming weekend, some are saying DRVN losing access to the port is still causing issues for their businesses. Brian Luby has been picking up salt for his Middletown-based Forest City Landscaping from DRVN’s new location in North Haven, but issues on the...
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MIDDLETOWN — Growing up, Liz Mazzotta Bazazi remembers the seasonal ritual of caring for her family’s fig tree. “[You] had to turn it over and bury it into the ground every winter and stand it back up in the summer,” she said. It was just one memory she has of...
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...among mostly empty programs. The detox program at Blue Hills has only two patients out of 21 available beds, and in Middletown, zero of the 20 beds are filled, according to figures provided by the union. Out of 30 beds available for women at the Middletown intensive residential treatment program,...
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...also for union representatives and state workers. Earlier this month, state employees and advocates held a virtual conference highlighting the lack of availability of mental health services for children, particularly at state-run facilities like the Solnit Center in Middletown, and for other underserved populations such as recently incarcerated people, Spanish-speakers...
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...Aug. 12, 2021. CT Examiner requested a copy of the full accident report from the State Police headquarters in Middletown on Aug. 25 to confirm details in a preliminary report on the crash. That report has not been provided, and CT Examiner has been told on a number of occasions...
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MIDDLETOWN — When Akashdeep Aujla, a psychiatrist at the Albert J. Solnit Children’s Center in Middletown, began working at the center 20 years ago, he said that the center had 100 hospital beds. Now, he said the facility has a maximum inpatient capacity of 44, and it is struggling to...
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MIDDLETOWN – At a public hearing Wednesday night, neighbors of the first proposed farm winery in Middletown questioned why a commercial business, and the traffic and noise that would come with it, would be allowed in their quiet, residential neighborhood. Joe DeFrancesco – who is proposing to turn his 7.3...
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...its Norwich clinic, and state-sponsored testing sites in Middletown and Meriden are also planning to increase their testing capacity to deal with the surge in demand. On December 20, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that seven new state testing sites would be opened. The week before Christmas, 741 COVID cases were...
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...residents are left waiting in line for a test after the site closes. Other communities, like Middletown and New London, distributed the test kits directly to first responders, school staff and residents in congregate homes and senior care facilities. “It is simply neither efficient nor equitable to distribute 3,500 test...
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