Local Members of Study Committee Named
Byline: By Wiley Wood

In separate but identical referendums on December 18, residents of Norfolk and Colebrook voted overwhelmingly in favor of studying regionalization, the first step towards bringing their primary schools under one roof. The yes vote to establish a regional study committee was 76 percent in Norfolk and 87 percent in Colebrook.

In response, both first selectmen have appointed five representatives to the 11-person committee. Each town will send its first selectman, the chairman of its board of finance, two members from its board of education and a member-at-large. The final member will be a consultant appointed by the commissioner of the Connecticut Board of Education.

The study committee will define the basic outlines of a Norfolk-Colebrook regional school district. “We will have to look at who would own the school building, how costs would be distributed, how transportation will be handled, whether building renovations would be necessary,” says Sue Dyer, Norfolk’s first selectman. “It’s not going to be easy.”

The resulting study, which may take two years to produce, will then be put to each town for a second referendum. A new regional primary school under a Colebrook-Norfolk regional board of education will be created only if both towns vote yes.

“We expect less than 100 students to enroll in school next fall,” says Tom McKeon, Colebrook’s first selectman. “Young couples can’t afford to live here, there are no jobs for them or else a long commute. So the area may be beautiful but young families aren’t moving in.” He cites cost cutting as one of his primary responsibilities. As Colebrook has even fewer commercial properties than Norfolk, the tax burden falls particularly heavily on residential owners.

Both first selectmen concede that the study, which they expect to fund through grants, may come to nothing. “Regionalization has been talked about ever since I’ve been around,” says McKeon, “but it may not work. That’s what the study is going to find out.”

Dyer points out that the December referendums give the committee a clear mandate and expects that the group will look at the difficult questions with an open mind. The local members of the committee other than the first selectmen are, for Norfolk: Michael Sconyers, board of finance, Sally Carr and Jill Hall, board of education, and Bill Brodnitzki, member-at-large; for Colebrook: Thomas McKeon, board of selectmen, James Millar, board of finance, Jeanne Jones and Hope Carfiro, board of education, and Sherri Gray, member-at-large.