Colebrook votes strongly against

By Wiley Wood

Colebrook voters resoundingly opposed the regionalization plan that would have brought the Norfolk and Colebrook primary schools together under one roof and one regional board. The vote count was 369 no to 175 yes.

In a simultaneous referendum held in Norfolk, the measure passed by a count of 314 yes to 238 no votes.

A yes vote was needed in both towns for the new regional district to be formed.

Colebrook’s first selectman, Tom McKeon, attributed the vote to the general desire among residents to keep the school in town. “Parents and non-parents didn’t want to lose the school,” said McKeon. “There was also the negativity of the Norfolk Board of Ed, in case some of them ended up on the regional board. That counted for a lot. And grade point averages are higher in Colebrook and the cost per student is lower. People just didn’t see much in it for them.”

Both the Botelle School in Norfolk and the Colebrook Consolidated School will continue as before under their town-elected boards of education, with their budgets subject to approval by their town’s Board of Finance. In a regional district, a popular vote is held annually to approve the budget and requires a plurality of votes to pass.

Sue Dyer, Norfolk’s first selectman, was occupied in the days after the vote gathering the study committee’s work product over the past three years and sending it to the state Board of Education. Asked if the towns might take up the question of consolidation again, Dyer said, “I don’t see it happening next year or the year after, but I could see it happening in three or four years, unless we got a sudden influx of students.”

“It’s back to square one!” said Ayerslee Denny, a Norfolk resident present when the vote was announced.