Residents of Norfolk and Colebrook voice their concerns

By Wiley Wood

At informational meetings in Colebrook and Norfolk on May 20 and 21 respectively, the Regionalization Study Committee presented its draft plan for joining the two towns’ elementary schools under one regional board.

“We are nearly at the end of our task,” said Jeanne Jones, chairman of the committee. The group was formed in March 2013, in response to referendums in both towns, and this is the seventh draft of its plan.

Nearly 40 residents attended the meetings, which began with a brief walk-through of the regional blueprint and went on to public comment.

Legislative action that would exempt the Norfolk-Colebrook school district from two Connecticut statutes during its first ten years is now pending in Hartford. If the legislation is passed during the current session, which ends on June 3, the plan will be presented to the State Board of Education for approval, then move toward referendum in the fall. Both towns must vote in favor for the new regional district to be formed.

In Colebrook, concerns were voiced over the length of the bus ride for some of the children in outlying areas, the possible drop in property values as a result of the community losing its school, and the fate of the school building.

Concerns in Norfolk centered on the loss of dedicated space for special activities within the building to make classrooms for incoming students, the specific terms of the lease that will govern the new district’s use of the town-owned school building and whether both towns will be in step when capital improvements for the school facilities are proposed.

In both towns, skepticism was expressed about the promise of an enhanced educational plan. “I don’t buy it,” said one Colebrook parent, and the sentiment was echoed in Norfolk the next night.

The only argument in favor, said Jonathan Costa, an educational consultant for the regionalization committee, is that the new region will command more resources than either town does individually. “You’ll have more students, more teachers, more programs, more possible configurations for how they fit together,” said Costa. “With seven teachers and seven classes, you’re in a tight box. With 14 teachers and 14 classes, you’ll be in a slightly looser box—which will get tighter with time.” Student enrollment is expected to continue declining slowly, but steadily in the coming decades.

The regional board, if both towns ratify the formation of a new district, will be responsible for hiring the new principal and superintendant, establishing the educational plan and drawing up the annual budget, which a combined majority of voters in Norfolk and Colebrook must approve.

A positive referendum in September or October could lead to the new school opening in the fall of 2016, but the board could also defer the opening until the fall of 2017.

From the first, said Costa, the committee was told it would have to offer a plan that provided a better education at a lower cost, or regionalization would have no chance of passing. Whether the present plan finds that sweet spot, he admitted, has to be a matter of perception.