By Avice Meehan

Norfolk voters will likely see an unusual item on the agenda for this year’s annual town meeting in May: A request to appropriate $58,366 for Botelle Elementary School for the current fiscal year. The action will ensure that Norfolk remains in compliance with a nearly 40-year-old state statute that sets out minimum requirements for school spending.

The trouble arose when a change in the school’s enrollment resulted in a drop of $185,000 for special education services. As a result, the budget of $2.545 million for the current fiscal year was $58,366 less than the year before. Declines in special education funding do not qualify as appropriate exceptions under current law.

First Selectmen Henry Tirrell, Board of Finance Chair Michael Sconyers and School Superintendent Kevin Chase met virtually on March 20 with representatives of the state Department of Education to make the town’s case for an exception. State Rep. Maria Horn joined the call. They were unsuccessful.

Case said the officials understood the town’s position and, at the same time, said they had to enforce the law. He hopes to speak with Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker while Tirrell hopes that Horn, who chairs the General Assembly’s joint Finance Committee, will identify longer-term legislative solutions that take reasonable budgetary shifts into account. The Board of Education will discuss the matter at its March 31 meeting, and the Board of Finance will take it up on April 14. “This is very frustrating,” said Sconyers, noting that the state left the town with “no choice but to add money to Botelle even though not requested by the BOE.” To be clear, the BOE does not have to spend the funds, but the town must appropriate the money