Board of Education Chairman Anthony Favry takes books out of the Gallup Hill School Dumpster as member Stephanie Calhoun looks on on Sunday, August 27, 2017. The books were returned to the school Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Lori McCullough)
Ledyard — Lori McCullough, who lives near Gallup Hill School in the Highlands neighborhood, said she and her son were out on Sunday and decided to go see the school’s new parking lot.
As they were checking out the lot, constructed as part of the school’s $28.6 million renovation, she spotted books peaking out of the school’s dumpster.
Among other items thrown away in the trash were “some brand new books, still in the packaging,” McCullough said.
She was “devastated,” she said, seeing some of her favorite authors in the trash, and thought of the people who could use them, like the Haitian school her church had donated their own books to not long ago.
After she returned home, she posted a few photos on the Ledyard Community Facebook Forum and asked if any parents wanted to take the books home themselves.
As people on the Facebook page responded with confusion and frustration to her photos, she was reminded by her mother that dumpster diving could be illegal.
She went back over to the school to check if there were any “no trespassing” signs at the school and encourage people not to take anything out until she got more information.
It was then that she ran into Board of Education Chairman Anthony Favry, who was inside the dumpster taking the books out, and board member Stephanie Calhoun. Both had driven over to the school to see what had happened to the books after they saw McCullough’s postings on the Ledyard Community Forum.
Favry said he got a message about the books earlier in the day and went over to check it out.
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