By Ruth Melville

The Economic Development Commission (EDC) invited members of the Board of Education (BoE), along with Superintendent Mary Beth Iacobelli and Principal Lauren Valentino, to attend an in-person meeting on Aug. 10 meeting to have a conversation about ways the EDC might be able to assist Botelle School.

EDC co-chair Libby Borden started the meeting off by saying that the EDC was most interested in learning how the school is doing, how the town might get more involved with the school, and whether additional use might be made of some of the space in the school building.

Ann DeCerbo, chair of the Board of Education, acknowledged that with a small student population, the school was facing a crisis. She offered three ways the EDC and the BoE could partner together to strengthen the school: (1) bringing more people to town; (2) encouraging additional connections between the school and town and (3) enriching the school experience for the kids.

Several ideas were discussed about fostering the connection between Botelle and the town. DeCerbo said that getting more people to visit the school would automatically help promote the school. She would like to build off the success of Friday Nights on the Green by having similar events on the school grounds, such as a sports field day or outdoor concerts or movies. The return of the big slide and repair of the tennis courts will also help draw people to the school.

DeCerbo also suggested producing materials, such as videos, to promote both the town and the school. EDC member and Realtor Tom McGowan replied that he is currently working on a new video promoting Norfolk and offered to make a separate video for Botelle. The Board of Education has a communications subcommittee that tries to provide consistent outreach through social media and encourage town residents to attend events at the school.

It was also suggested that Botelle teachers and students could go out into the community more, which would have the added benefit of enhancing the children’s classroom learning. For example, a small group of students could go on a field trip to a local farm, Town Hall, the Public Works Department or a town business and then come back to the school and share with other students what they learned. DeCerbo said she could put together a directory of people in town that teachers could use as a resource. In the past, Linda Perkins, the town clerk, and First Selectman Matt Riiska have come to the school to talk to the kids about the town.

Kate Johnson, EDC member (and former chair of the Board of Education), asked about projections of future enrollment. Iacobelli said that although the past 10 years have shown tremendous variability, it looks like the numbers are now holding fairly steady. A positive sign is that the number of preschoolers is up this year, at 10. She added that the lack of affordable housing was an important factor in the decline of student numbers. Families come to Norfolk to rent, she said, but then they can’t afford to buy a house to stay here.

In response to a question from EDC Co-Chair Michael Selleck, Iacobelli said there are no plans at present to reopen the question of consolidation with the Colebrook primary school. Although two schools collaborate with each other—Norfolk kids attend events at Colebrook and vice versa—there is no interest on Colebrook’s part in reconsidering the regionalization plan. Borden commented that the town of Colebrook rallied around its school after the referendum on regionalization failed in 2015, and that Norfolk should do the same for its school.

Circling back to ways of getting more people into the school, DeCerbo noted that the school building has a lot of space that could be put to community use, for example, for family services, continuing education classes or exercise programs.

Both groups want to keep the conversation going, and Selleck encouraged the Board of Education to send a liaison to future EDC meetings.