By Danni Dunlop
Several Branford High School students recently traveled to Hartford with social studies teacher Mr. Dave Gruendel and spent the day at the capitol as part of a legislative day sponsored by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.
The BHS contingent met up with John Prins, a Branford Board of Education member, as part of the program. CABE brings teachers, superintendents, boards of education members and even students who are invited to the State Capitol to hear about laws that are being discussed by the general assembly, the legislative body in Connecticut’s government. They have sponsored the program for the last 30 years.
“It’s a chance for us to learn about potential laws that are going to impact our communities,” Mr. Gruendel said. “It’s essentially a way if we find a bill that we either like or don’t like, the hope is we get in touch with our local state senators and representatives and say ‘Hey we heard about this bill we like it or we don’t like this bill.’ ”
A couple of the bills that were being discussed were to prohibit school from being held on Veteran’s Day and to require every passenger on a school bus to wear a seat belt.
The students had the chance to talk to multiple people about the bills that were being discussed. One of the people they talked to was State Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-12) whose district includes Branford. He talked to them also about how he helps bills get passed.
Mr. Gruendel said that “It was really interesting because we hear a lot about fighting between the democrats and republicans” and according to Kennedy, they do not have that problem with the bills from the environmental committee.
Kennedy and another Democratic legislator worked with two Republicans to look at all the bills that were going to be discussed.
Serena Sachs, ’19, said “I thought it was interesting hearing and learning about the different bills that were presented.”
The students who went on this trip really enjoyed seeing the whole process.
“I enjoyed seeing how the bills were discussed and how new laws affecting our school system are made,” Bobby Olejarczyk, ’19, said. “Overall it was a great experience that was quite fascinating.”
