For
Reconfiguration:
Region 12 Long Range Panel Mulls Options
Region 12 Long Range Panel Mulls Options
by Mike Preato
Published:
Wednesday,
June 5, 2013 7:07 AM EDT
WASHINGTON
— The Region 12 Long Range Planning Committee, meeting Tuesday, May 28, went
through trial runs of PowerPoint presentations on each of the reconfiguration
options.
Superintendant Dr. Patricia Cosentino reviewed the option of making the Burnham School for grades 3-5 and Booth Free School for grades K-2, while keeping Shepaug and Washington Primary as they are.
She said the change would help equalize the student population in Burnham and Booth Free schools, however, Washington Primary School would still face the issue of very small class sizes.
Dr. Cosentino said this option did not allow for the elementary schools to be renovated and lowered the number of renovations that would happen at Shepaug High School.
Superintendant Dr. Patricia Cosentino reviewed the option of making the Burnham School for grades 3-5 and Booth Free School for grades K-2, while keeping Shepaug and Washington Primary as they are.
She said the change would help equalize the student population in Burnham and Booth Free schools, however, Washington Primary School would still face the issue of very small class sizes.
Dr. Cosentino said this option did not allow for the elementary schools to be renovated and lowered the number of renovations that would happen at Shepaug High School.
She
said the combined classes would save money by reducing the number of teaching
positions, but noted the schools may also need additional specialized staff.
One of the positives, she said, was that the option could be implemented immediately since it would require minimal planning time and rearrangement. It would still require a referendum vote.
There would be additional costs to the transportation portion of the budget sincer longer bus routes would traverse the towns.
Following the presentation, committee members discussed the community impact portion of the study and the attitudes of residents towards the reconfiguration options.
Committee member Darcy Campbell said that most people who grew up in Region 12 want a small school in their town, but noted that the educational needs of the students are also an issue of concern to residents.
“Those are two distinctly different topics. What we want and what we need; and as adults, educated adults, I think we need to get the emotion out of it and look at what our students need, not what the adults want,” Ms. Campbell said.
Region 12 Board of Education member Kelly Lott brought up the topic of re-regionalizing with other towns or regions.
Dr. Cosentino responded by saying that Region 12 was not in any position to re-regionalize with any other towns, “Because no one in their right mind would join us at this point.”
She continued, saying that no town or region would agree to join with Region 12 if the stipulation was that each town keeps its elementary school.
Following this discussion, additional presentations on several other reconfiguration options were reviewed.
The option to create themed elementary schools seemed to receive a negative response from committee members, who expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the system.
The themed schools options would create specialty schools for children on subjects such as science, math, art or humanities, instead of providing a standard elementary school education.
Problems with this option include the retraining of staff members, choosing themes, possibilities of students interested in one theme school being forced to attend a different one due to class size issues and the two years it would take to create the education programs.
It was also noted that unlike towns with magnet schools, there would be no regular school that children not interested in the themes could attend.
Because the schools are not magnet schools, any parents from outside of Region 12 who want to send their children to one of the schools would need to pay the tuition themselves.
Education Connection’s Jonathan Costa said themed schools may cause some families to want to move into the towns, but that it would take several years for this to happen as the schools would need time to establish themselves and become well-known for their themes.
He said the demand for themed schools was not high, but that amongst a small segment of the population there is a strong demand.
On the option of tuitioning out high school students while maintaining the elementary schools, committee members discussed what impact the loss of Shepaug High School might have on the towns.
Commenting on the loss of facilities, Roxbury First Selectman Barbara Henry said that under this option, “You can also kiss athletics goodbye.”
Mr. Costa said that one of the problems with tuitioning out students is that the receiving towns set the tuition rates, meaning they could charge either less or more than it costs the town to educate the high school students currently.
Committee member Peter Tagley presented the option of creating a new pre-kindergarten to fifth-grade school on the Shepaug campus and closing all of the other elementary schools.
Mr. Tagley said the subcommittee researching this option consisted of members of all three towns and none of them could come up with any real negatives to the plan.
He said that he believes this is the only option that would have a chance of passing in all three towns.
In order to help provide the region with the most information possible, committee member Anthony Weymouth has been reviewing data about the costs of each project and is working to develop a net present value for each of the reconfiguration options.
Mr. Weymouth said that he has been doing this kind of work for many years on other projects and he decided to offer up his services to the region to help with compiling and organizing numerical data.
He said that when it comes to evaluating the data, he will only evaluate the costs to the region itself.
He said that options which return the elementary school facilities to the towns will not factor in the towns’ costs for re-purposing the facilities as it is up to each town to decide what they will do with their buildings.
One of the positives, she said, was that the option could be implemented immediately since it would require minimal planning time and rearrangement. It would still require a referendum vote.
There would be additional costs to the transportation portion of the budget sincer longer bus routes would traverse the towns.
Following the presentation, committee members discussed the community impact portion of the study and the attitudes of residents towards the reconfiguration options.
Committee member Darcy Campbell said that most people who grew up in Region 12 want a small school in their town, but noted that the educational needs of the students are also an issue of concern to residents.
“Those are two distinctly different topics. What we want and what we need; and as adults, educated adults, I think we need to get the emotion out of it and look at what our students need, not what the adults want,” Ms. Campbell said.
Region 12 Board of Education member Kelly Lott brought up the topic of re-regionalizing with other towns or regions.
Dr. Cosentino responded by saying that Region 12 was not in any position to re-regionalize with any other towns, “Because no one in their right mind would join us at this point.”
She continued, saying that no town or region would agree to join with Region 12 if the stipulation was that each town keeps its elementary school.
Following this discussion, additional presentations on several other reconfiguration options were reviewed.
The option to create themed elementary schools seemed to receive a negative response from committee members, who expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the system.
The themed schools options would create specialty schools for children on subjects such as science, math, art or humanities, instead of providing a standard elementary school education.
Problems with this option include the retraining of staff members, choosing themes, possibilities of students interested in one theme school being forced to attend a different one due to class size issues and the two years it would take to create the education programs.
It was also noted that unlike towns with magnet schools, there would be no regular school that children not interested in the themes could attend.
Because the schools are not magnet schools, any parents from outside of Region 12 who want to send their children to one of the schools would need to pay the tuition themselves.
Education Connection’s Jonathan Costa said themed schools may cause some families to want to move into the towns, but that it would take several years for this to happen as the schools would need time to establish themselves and become well-known for their themes.
He said the demand for themed schools was not high, but that amongst a small segment of the population there is a strong demand.
On the option of tuitioning out high school students while maintaining the elementary schools, committee members discussed what impact the loss of Shepaug High School might have on the towns.
Commenting on the loss of facilities, Roxbury First Selectman Barbara Henry said that under this option, “You can also kiss athletics goodbye.”
Mr. Costa said that one of the problems with tuitioning out students is that the receiving towns set the tuition rates, meaning they could charge either less or more than it costs the town to educate the high school students currently.
Committee member Peter Tagley presented the option of creating a new pre-kindergarten to fifth-grade school on the Shepaug campus and closing all of the other elementary schools.
Mr. Tagley said the subcommittee researching this option consisted of members of all three towns and none of them could come up with any real negatives to the plan.
He said that he believes this is the only option that would have a chance of passing in all three towns.
In order to help provide the region with the most information possible, committee member Anthony Weymouth has been reviewing data about the costs of each project and is working to develop a net present value for each of the reconfiguration options.
Mr. Weymouth said that he has been doing this kind of work for many years on other projects and he decided to offer up his services to the region to help with compiling and organizing numerical data.
He said that when it comes to evaluating the data, he will only evaluate the costs to the region itself.
He said that options which return the elementary school facilities to the towns will not factor in the towns’ costs for re-purposing the facilities as it is up to each town to decide what they will do with their buildings.
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