Region 12 leaders remain upbeat

Susan Tuz

Published 4:15 pm, Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The last few months of Region 12's 2013-14 school year could have been sunnier for the school district's administration.

Voters resoundingly rejected consolidation of the elementary school grades into a single building on the Shepaug Valley campus during an April 29 referendum of voters in Washington, Bridgewater and Roxbury.

A second defeat was absorbed June 17 when voters rejected funding $8.28 million for renovation and repairs at Shepaug Valley School, the region's middle/high school.

Yet the Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools Pat Cosentino remain undaunted.

"The first referendum had to be held so the board knew people's thoughts on consolidation," Cosentino said Tuesday. "Now we know it isn't wanted by the majority of voters and we can move forward."

The second referendum came at a time when "there was a lot of voter fatigue and backlash from the first referendum," she said.

Cosentino believes the urgency of work needed at Shepaug Valley School wasn't communicated at a time when residents would be receptive.

"I've always felt that a high school is the jewel of any community," Cosentino said. "Shepaug has great aspects to its program. It's a really special place."

"And we have to relay that," she said. "I think the next time the question of funding is put before the voters, it will get a positive response."

Board vice chairman Alan Brown agrees.

The Bridgewater representative faults the school board and administration for concentrating too much on "selling the idea of consolidation" and not enough on relaying how they plan to work together as a team with the region's three towns to see Region 12 not only survives, but thrives.

"We really need to give the public a greater concept of what is needed and why," Brown said. "We are working hard on securing the future of our region."

"Retreats are planned where the board will discuss plans with the towns' selectmen," he added. "Another long range planning committee, likely comprising board members, will be put in place."

Brown said the board is aware of the fatigue much of the region is feeling regarding planning and deciding on the school district's future.

The first step in revitalizing the region arrived Monday when the board slashed out-of-district tuitions, cutting the figure in half.

Tuitions will now be $7,500, starting with the 2014-15 school year.

"Danbury is bursting at the seams. Other districts are looking for solutions," Brown said. "We have to be competitive."

The newly adopted. out-of-district tuition policy was vetted by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.

It would give the superintendent purview about a final decision on student admission.

This would assure the region is not overwhelmed by an influx of tuition-paying students, a situation that would drive up operating costs.

The policy also states special-needs students could tuition in at the $7,500 cost but any extra requirements for their schooling beyond the basics offered by the region would be at the parent's expense.

"(Board member) Kelly Lott gave a good example from a business perspective," Cosentino said. "It's like airplanes or hotels -- regardless of the rate of occupancy that a flight or hotel has, there is a fixed cost to flying the plane or keeping the hotel open."

Cosentino said the region's "fixed cost" can't be reduced at this point. Bringing in students from out-of-district would bolster the coffer while revitalizing the region.

Roses & Thorns

Published 11:00 am, Wednesday, July 9, 2014

ROSES to the Western Connecticut Health Network and everyone involved in the successful $150 million addition to Danbury Hospital, which officially opened recently.

Praise goes to Dr. John Murphy, president and chief executive officer of WCHN, the umbrella organization that includes New Milford, Danbury and Norwalk hospitals; to Michael Daglio, the chief operating officer, Morris Gross, the vice president for facilities and real estate, and Grace Linhard, chief development officer of the WCHN Foundation, for the key roles they played in the project; to Peter Buck, a Danbury resident and co-founder of the Subway sandwich chain, who donated a record $30 million toward creation of the facility; and to the 11 other donors who contributed more than $1 million each.

The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Pavilion -- so named in honor of Buck and his late wife -- is an 11-story structure that adds 316,000 square feet of space to the hospital, including the 40,000-square-foot Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Emergency Department and a state-of-the-art, 30-bed critical care unit.

The addition, which is the product of three years of planning and three years of construction, won't be open to patients until later this summer.

When those doors are opened to the public, area residents including those in the Greater New Milford area will be fortunate indeed to be blessed with a much bigger, much more modern facility to serve their medical needs, as a complement to the services offered locally at New Milford Hospital.

THORNS to the Region 12 Board of Education and its superintendent of schools, Pat Cosentino, for being out of touch with the residents of the district towns of Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington.

This year, Region 12 officials made the mistake of holding a referendum calling for consolidation of the district's three elementary schools, even though that proposal had zero chance of passing, given the traditionally strong opposition in Bridgewater and Roxbury to closing their local schools.

The board compounded the error by lumping an $8.3 million repairs and renovations package for Shepaug Valley Middle/High School in the same question with the consolidation plan, despite being urged to separate those two issues on the ballot.

When the proposal went down by an embarrassingly lopsided margin on April 29, that meant the board had no idea how the public felt about the repairs/renovations plan.

In light of all the talk during the run-up to that referendum about whether Region 12, the high school and the middle school will even exist 10 or 20 years down the road due to sharply declining enrollment figures, it would have been wise for district officials to deal with that issue head-on before resubmitting the repairs/renovation plan to the voters.

Yet the board went right ahead with another referendum, and the results were predictable.

Bridgewater and Roxbury shot the plan down by big numbers and, while Washington approved it, the woeful 13 percent voter turnout reflected only lukewarm support.

Twice rebuked, the Region 12 board and Cosentino need to go back to square one, sincerely listen to the public, and come up with a vision and game plan -- whatever that may be -- that can be supported by the residents of the three district communities.

What's next for Region 12?

Published 4:47 pm, Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The residents of Region 12 have sent a powerful message to town and school officials with their overwhelming rejection of both questions on Tuesday's referendum ballot.

District voters shot down a proposed change in the 1967 regional plan that would have removed the guarantee that each Region 12 town would have a K-5 school within its borders and led to Bridgewater and Roxbury being the only towns in Connecticut without an elementary school.

Voters also handily defeated a $41 million proposal to build a consolidated elementary school on the Shepaug Valley Middle High School campus and to renovate the four-decade-old middle/high school.

As anticipated, Bridgewater and Roxbury -- the two smallest towns in the district -- voted in big numbers against both proposals.

Bridgewater residents spoke with almost one voice, as there was a more than 90 percent "no" vote on both questions, while nearly two-thirds of Roxbury voters rejected the change in the regional plan and nearly three-quarters turned down the $41 million plan.

Also as anticipated, Washington -- the center of the pro-consolidation movement over the decades -- supported both questions by roughly two-thirds votes.

However, the surprisingly low voter turnout in Washington -- 33 percent to Bridgewater's 68 percent and Roxbury's 54 percent -- contributed to a district-wide 63 percent "no" vote on Question 1 and a whopping 68 percent rejection of Question 2.

Now that the referendum has been held and the smoke is starting to clear, the question is this: What's next for Region 12?

For starters, school and town officials and district residents alike need to do their best to put behind them the acrimony, emotion and rhetoric of the past couple of years leading up to the referendum.

The folks in Bridgewater and Roxbury who successfully blocked the loss of their schools and tens of millions of dollars in bonding need to be humble in victory, and consolidation proponents in all three towns need to be gracious in defeat.

School and town officials will be going back to the drawing board, and they need to start with a clean slate and a sincere desire to truly listen to each other, to honestly try to understand each other's positions, and to work together in seeking a new game plan.

One good starting point is the universal agreement throughout Region 12 that something has to be done to deal with severely declining enrollment and rising per-pupil expenditures.

Another starting point is certainly that consolidation is now off the table.

The Board of Education took a calculated risk in going forth with a consolidation plan when it knew Bridgewater -- and very likely Roxbury -- would reject such a proposal.

What made the risk even greater was, as the result of a 2009 state Supreme Court ruling, it took only one town to block any changes in the regional plan and, therefore, any consolidation proposal.

That risk did not pay off, and school officials are hopefully that much wiser.

It is clear no consolidation plan will pass in Region 12, and it is equally clear all three towns need to be on the same page -- or at least in the same ballpark -- regarding the future of the district.

In the short term, officials might bring back the $8.3 million middle/high school renovations portion of the $41 million plan.

There might also be a push to merge the elementary schools in Roxbury and Bridgewater, achieving some cost savings by making Roxbury's Booth Free School a pre-K-to-grade-2 school for both towns and Bridgewater's Burnham School the towns' grade 3-5 facility.

But there are other serious philosophical and pragmatic issues that need to be explored with regard to educational quality, attracting more students to Region 12, fiscal matters and the viability of the district.

We hope people of good will from throughout Region 12 will work harmoniously to achieve an enlightened game plan that will reunite the district and be good for the students and residents of all three towns.

Feels 'there are resolutions' in Region 12

Published 12:49 am, Wednesday, May 7, 2014

To the Editor:

The education of Region 12's kindergarten through fifth-grade youngsters is exceptional.

Yet, we have members of our school board who have suggested it's best to put these small young people on a long, wasted bus ride and place them in a new $40 million building.

They believe then and only then would they receive a good education.

The state ranking for schools proves them wrong. It's too bad the state doesn't have a ranking for school boards.

On January 4, 1962, John F. Kennedy stated, "A child miseducated is a child lost."

I want to thank the four school board members who tried to point the region in a better direction. I am grateful to the people who had the good common sense and voted "no" to stop the unnecessary and expensive new facility, and to safeguard the voting rights of the small towns and to make sure our children are not lost.

If our Region 12 Board of Education would put to vote the repairs to our present facilities that are truly necessary, I believe residents would support it.

If they would listen to their small partner towns instead of wasting years and much money and agony, we would be further ahead in finding a resolution.

If our superintendent would concentrate her efforts on being a manager of our present system for which we hired her and quit being a salesperson for a new building, we would all be better off.

Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is a thing to be achieved.

There are resolutions.

William T. Stuart

Bridgewater

Welcome regional partnership to solve problems

Published 12:47 am, Wednesday, May 14, 2014

More than two years ago, Region 12 embarked on a process to get an answer.

On April 29, the region received a resounding and definitive answer to the question of consolidation.

The majority of the towns in the region want to keep their hometown schools and reject spending the money for a consolidated one.

This historic vote resulted in more than 90 percent of the voters in Bridgewater voting for Burnham School to remain open and, by a 2-1 margin, Roxbury voters concurred for Booth Free School.

SOS would like to thank all supporters -- young families, retirees, new residents and old, weekenders and full-timers -- all who have worked tirelessly to preserve our award-winning schools and help guarantee the future vitality of our towns.

The three first selectmen have said for the past two years we cannot continue "as is."

Doing nothing was not an option and shouldn't be now. We must honor this vote and quickly and impartially move to investigate creative solutions that utilize current buildings.

There are many possibilities. However, this is only one piece of the work to be done.

We must also work to bring families into these communities and retain the ones already here. We need a plan of action with built-in accountability to increase enrollment within the region as soon as possible.

This plan must work in concert with the towns' current plans.

Will the eight-person Board of Education voting bloc now listen to the 1,600-person voter majority?

It remains to be seen if they can lead. If not, the region's collapse is insured.

We look for the town leaders to step in and provide the necessary leadership if necessary.

Will the superintendent, who has an opportunity now to be inclusive, as opposed to encouraging divisiveness, include the voices of others and listen and lead toward a new direction?

Or will she try to implement ideas that will further alienate the majority of voters and only damage chances of bringing new students into these communities?

Unfortunately, the latest idea of merging kindergarten and first grade at Burnham School is impulsive, political and not the best available option.

A more educationally sound and population-sensitive option would be a pre-kindergarten/kindergarten merge.

There is currently a waiting list of seven children for the Reach pre-K program. In a time of declining enrollment, no child should be on a waiting list in our region when our main goal is to increase the number of children in the school system over the long term.

The region should pilot a pre-K/K merge at Burnham this year, adding the seven children on the waiting list to the current kindergarten class. This could also enable Bridgewater to launch a before- and after-school care program as a pilot extended-day enrichment program for the region.

We also believe the region should reevaluate offering the program to Booth and WPS families so they may also benefit.

This solution would not require a referendum.

The town of Bridgewater has begun many new initiatives to attract and appeal to young families. It will take some time.

We would welcome working with others from Roxbury and Washington on similar ventures.

Let's get to work.

Carolan Dwyer

Julie Stuart

Co-chairwomen

Save Our Schools

Bridgewater

Offers Option

May 10, 2014

For Region 12 To the Editor:

I was not surprised by the fact that residents from Bridgewater and Roxbury soundly defeated the plan for consolidation or that residents of Washington supported the initiative by a vote of 2 to 1.


If that is the case, one clear option may be to eliminate Washington Primary School and consolidate those students into Burnham and Booth Free School.


It appears that Washington residents are okay with extended bus rides and larger class sizes so this transition should be smooth and some cost savings may be achieved by reducing from three to two elementary schools that could serve the Region.

Richard Deanne 
Marble Dale

Burnham School earns spotlight as 'Cool School'

Published 5:25 pm, Wednesday, May 7, 2014

• 
  Burnham School in Bridgewater has been selected as one of the state's "cool schools" by WFSB Channel 3's Mark Dixon. May 2014 Courtesy of WFSB Photo: Contributed Photo

Click here for Video: >   http://www.wfsb.com/category/211215/cool-schools

If there were ever any doubt, WFSB Channel 3 will confirm Friday, May 9 that Burnham School in Bridgewater is, in fact, a "Cool School."

The television station's Mark Dixon visited Burnham April 30 and filmed a Cool School segment for WFSB's morning news.

That two-hour segment will be aired Friday morning from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.

"They filmed four segments focusing on Bridgewater's community involvement with the school," said Burnham Principal Cathy Colella.

Filmed was the Welcome, a school day meeting that focuses on the school's Buddy Bench, kindergarten to 2nd grade students being read to in the library and the junior garden club members planting with Bridgewater Garden Club members.

"The Buddy Bench is a bench we have by the playground that children sit on if they have no one to play with," Colella explained. "If you see someone sitting on the Buddy Bench, you go over and invite them to join in a game or activity."

Also featured was Jen Iannucci talking about recycling with the students and Burnham's part in Bridgewater's organics composting program via the Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority.

-- Susan Tuz