Botelle  and Regional 7 likely to follow region-wide trend

By Sally Quale

Nationwide, the number of school-aged children will remain static until 2015, at which point a gradual increase is predicted. That’s when the children of Generation Y (or the Echo Boomers) will be entering the school system. There will, however, be a change in the distribution of these children amongst the 50 states.  In 32 of the states, there will be an enrollment increase of 5 to 15 percent, while the number will decrease in 18 states as well as in the District of Columbia. In Connecticut, enrollment will drop by 5.3 percent, the seventh highest decrease in the country.

The Botelle School, which was originally built as a monastery.

In the northwest corner, the Region 1 school district, which includes Canaan, Falls Village, Kent, Sharon, Salisbury and Cornwall, requested two organizations to provide predictions for their school population. The results, from the state Department of Education and from the New England School Development Council, show a decline of 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively by 2011.

The projections for Norfolk’s elementary school, Botelle, whose students move on to Regional 7 High School in Winsted, will reflect this trend.

The State Department of Education estimates that “Norfolk has the potential for a moderate decrease in total enrollment [through 2015]…if current patterns hold.”  Botelle’s superintendent George Counter points out, “we have exceeded the state’s projected enrollment by 10 to 15 percent for the past few years.”

First Selectman Sue Dyer recalls that Botelle’s enrollment reached its peak at 270 students in the 1970s, as the Baby Boomers passed through the system. Since then, it has progressively decreased to the current population of 173 for the 2006-2007 school year. This number includes children in K-6 plus the school’s additional pre-Kindergarten class and Special Education students.

The school administrators and the Board of Education are projecting a 2007-2008 enrollment similar to that for this year. Plans are to finalize the upcoming budget at the Board meeting on February 28, which will result, Counter predicts, in a five percent budget increase.

Counter sees certain advantages in our currently small and possibly, smaller school. For now, the facilities are adequate. Class sizes can be held to about 21 students, insuring greater individual attention while also ensuring a critical social component. Any larger class, Counter notes, is broken into two sections, as is the current Kindergarten and Fifth Grade.

He adds that Botelle’s small size does require increased staff flexibility. “It takes only one or two more or fewer students in a class to create a class size or staffing problem. Parents have enjoyed the reasonable class sizes that Botelle has been able to provide.”

Photo by Veronica Burns.