Do We Have The Cart Before The Horse?

By Colleen Gundlach

As so often happens in a small town, there are different viewpoints and outlooks, even among friends. Such is the case with the topic of this View. Even among the editors of Norfolk Now, there is friendly disparity about this issue. The opinions I express and the questions I raise here are not necessarily the opinions of my fellow editors, just as they are the opinions of some Norfolkians as a whole, but not all. That being said…

“Shall the Town of Norfolk join in the establishment of a temporary regional school study committee to study the advisability of establishing a regional school district with the Town of Colebrook?” That was the question put before Norfolk voters in December of 2012, with an outcome of yes.

The key words in this question are “study the advisability of.” The voters of the town authorized a study of the pros and cons of merging Botelle School and Colebrook Consolidated into one school. Now that the Norfolk/Colebrook Regionalization Committee has been meeting for more than a year and a half, there are some questions that we need to ask ourselves.

First, has the regionalization committee fulfilled their commission or exceeded it? Have they produced a report of the advantages and disadvantages for consideration by the electorate or have they produced an implementation plan?

Secondly, are we putting the cart before the horse? The committee has asked our state legislators to help them either obtain waivers or change laws relative to cost equalization and minimum budget requirements. Are we asking them to make changes for us before we have stated what it is that we actually want?

If the study committee was charged with coming back to the voters with pros and cons and making a recommendation, then isn’t the next step a referendum on whether or not we want to proceed with regionalization based on their findings?

In the latest draft of a proposal prepared by consultant Jonathan Costa of Education Connection, to be presented to the State Board of Education, it is stated that, “This plan will be presented to both the communities of Norfolk and Colebrook at public informational meetings in May, 2014 and will be submitted for approval to the Connecticut State Board of Education and the Commissioner of Education for approval soon after. Once State Board approval is granted, a referendum will be scheduled to ask each community for final approval of the plan.”

Point of order. Shouldn’t a referendum be held first on the original question of whether or not the towns of Colebrook and Norfolk want to proceed with this? The issue on the floor is a review of the pros and cons of consolidation and is awaiting a firm yes or no decision by an educated voting public. Once we have that answer, if yes, we can proceed with the implementation recommendations and State approvals. Shouldn’t we as a town vote yay or nay for regionalization before we vote on the implementation process?

It’s open for friendly discussion.