Board of Education gets two new members

By Wiley Wood

The main focus of the town election on Nov. 5 was the Board of Education. Six candidates—three Democrats and three Republicans—contended for the three seats opening this year.

Two of the Democratic candidates, Gordon Anderson and Virginia Coleman-Prisco, were elected. Both are educators and will be serving their first terms. Also elected was returning board member Donna Rubin, a Republican. Slated to depart from the seven-member board are Kim Crone and Sara Heller.

First Selectman Matt Riiska, who was endorsed by both the Republican and the Democratic town committees, received a second term, as did the other two members of the Board of Selectmen, Paul Madore (D) and Alexandria (Sandy) Evans (R), who ran unopposed.

Both Norfolk’s incumbent tax collector, Sarah Bruso, and its incumbent treasurer, Chelsea Byrne, were endorsed by both parties and voted back into office.

The Board of Finance saw the election of Grant Mudge (D), an incumbent, and Jeffrey Torrant (R), formerly an alternate. A new Board of Finance alternate, Amy Bennett (D), was elected unopposed.

Two new members were elected to the Planning and Zoning Commission, Christopher Schaut and Melissa Renkert, along with returning member Marion Felton. Two alternates, Stephen Whalen and Kevin Gundlach, were also voted to the board.

The Zoning Board of Appeals remained unchanged, with the reelection of Mary Bazzano-Reeve and Daniel Green as board members and Christopher Peterson and Alan Boucher as alternates.

Turnout for the election was low, with 494 votes cast out of an electorate of 1,151, for a voting rate of 43 percent. Norfolk’s voter rolls count 460 Democrats, 228 Republicans, 453 unaffiliated and 11 “Other.” The number of absentee ballots cast in this election was 33.

If the race for Board of Education drew an unusually strong slate of candidates, it is likely because Botelle Elementary School, over which the board has oversight, is widely viewed as being at a crisis point. Enrollment is down to 75 students this year, a decline of about 50 percent in 10 years (from 141 students in 2010-11). The per pupil cost, at $23,000, puts Norfolk among the top 12 most expensive school districts in the state. And standardized test scores have been unimpressive. Meanwhile, the median age of Norfolk residents has climbed to 54, qualifying it as a boomer town.

Among the questions raised at a recent Board of Education candidates’ forum were whether to consolidate, how to fund Botelle and at what level, and whether to invest in a campaign to draw tuition-paying students from nearby underfunded districts.