5 Cold Spring Drive
New Fairfield, CT 06812

Below is a major situation going on at the school that I haven't seen anyone talk about yet, but I feel this should be brought to attention.If there's one thing that I hadn't seen anyone talk about here yet, it's the Fire Alarm situation at the school. Fire alarms are there in the school in case there is a real fire emergency. They shouldn't be there to evacuate the entire school (along with a Middle school that is attached to it) because people vape in the bathrooms triggering them. The situation has been going on since this school year and last school year, maybe even earlier. The management for preventing this sort of thing from happening isn't exactly the best. Even if it wasn't caused by people vaping in the bathrooms, something happens in the school which causes them to ring off. We can't keep leaving school like that. It's a waste of time.Today marks the first time the school had the Fire Alarms go off twice in the same class period, and this has been the fourth time the fire alarms had rung out in the schools this month alone. Whether there was vaping in the bathrooms or a faulty alarm triggering an "emergency," we lose a lot of class time because it takes 20-30 minutes to evacuate and get back to learning.If you're a parent, I recommend you teach children about fire safety measures they need to take in school. There are cooking, chemistry, and physics classes which requires some student experience with open flames. We have a woodworking class that requires the use of machinery to cut wood. We have machines in digital design (printers, 3D printers, and laser cutters) that heat up easily. Fire safety should be taught on both ends by teachers and parents. One other thing. The posters around the school hallways telling us to stay away from vaping are not enough. Not even the health classes who explain the side effects of vaping are helping. They would only help if there have been no cases of students triggering the fire alarms because they would vape in the bathrooms. But that action still exists in school. Just saying something about it can't help the situation. Measures need to be taken to prevent this from happening again, and again, and again. So parents, please make sure your children stay off of the vapes, and school please make sure that students don't use drugs. Many students want to use our bathrooms again without the fear of smelling the smoke and getting addicted. We want to learn in school without any interruptions. Thanks! :)

Wonderful for those who have an IEP. My son was not getting the proper services in any other town in CT (Brookfield and Norwalk). After we moved to NF they conducted the appropriate testing and created the most robust IEP since my son started school. Instead of marrying themselves to the 80/20 rule it was essentially reversed to the 20/80 rule. My son has ADHD, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Auditory Processing Dysfunction, severe executive brain level dysfunction and mood disorder. NF gave my son a full-time Para and created his environment with the resource room as his foundation and then building out his program into the mainstream. Not only have his academics jumped up drastically, his ability to tolerate and actually "Enjoy" the mainstream increased to the point that my son spent most of the last month of school (2013) in the mainstream. This is unheard of for my son so as you can imagine I am beyond thrilled!!!!! Thank you, MHHS!!!!!

If there is one thing about this school that I hear nothing about, it's the fire alarm. I remember being too scared to come the school and being ready to learn because of it. Some days I even refused enter the building. The fire alarm is set on continuous and is very very loud! Honestly, I was not the only one that bothered by this fire alarm. Some other students and teachers told me they were as well. So if any parents want to enroll their kids or have them in the New Fairfield public schools with sensory issues or special needs, the fire alarm at this school will probably not bearable for those types of students. I am working with Phil Ross with a solution to make this fire alarm a little bit better for the students and staff in the school, so hopefully it all works out.Sincerely, Ronnie Gibson