Region 12 a divided district over solution to declining enrollment

Published 6:49 pm, Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Declining student enrollments have spurred school officials throughout the area to take a hard look at the future of their educational facilities -- and the expenditure of taxpayers' dollars. From Ridgefield and Newtown to New Milford and Region 12, shrinking pupil populations have translated to under-utilized building space and prompted proposals to consolidate students in fewer schools.The issue had been a point of debate among officials and residents in both Ridgefield and Newtown in recent years, but both towns have put the matter on hold

In New Milford, officials seem to favor closing John Pettibone School, but there are residents who oppose that move because it would leave the largest geographic town in the state with just two elementary schools, it would require redistricting and longer bus rides for some students, it would mean grade reconfiguration, and not everyone is sold on the projections for declining enrollment.

But nowhere is the issue of school consolidation more contentious than in the Region 12 towns of Washington, Bridgewater and Roxbury.

Washington, the biggest town in the Shepaug Valley, has long sought to close the three elementary schools in the district and build a consolidated pre-K-to-grade-5 facility within its borders.

Meanwhile, Bridgewater has passionately resisted closing Burnham School, and Roxbury has strongly protected Booth Free School.

With student numbers dwindling in the district, Region 12 officials and residents considered a number of cost-saving options over the past couple of years.

It quickly became clear that Bridgewater and, to a lesser degree, Roxbury, did not want to become the only towns in Connecticut without hometown schools, with all the potential negative effects on their tight-knit communities, local economies and future demographics.

However, Washington officials did not keep their ears to the ground, and they were not sensitive to how important those two local schools are to the Bridgewater and Roxbury communities. Instead, they led a push for a consolidation proposal and the hiring of professional firms --- to the tune of $143,000 -- to draw up plans for such a facility.

Now, however, questions are being raised about whether the school board acted too hastily.

In order to consolidate, Region 12 voters would have to authorize a change in the 1967 regionalization plan that ensures each town will have a school. And as the result of a 2009 state Supreme Court ruling sought by Bridgewater, all three towns -- not just a majority of district voters -- would have to approve that change.

Pro-consolidation forces have argued, plausibly, that voters need to know what a new school would look like and what it would cost before deciding whether to change the regional plan.

Opponents of consolidation have contended, equally plausibly, that the experts should never have been hired until a vote was held on the regional plan and that if a proposed new plan is shot down, as they anticipate, Shepaug Valley taxpayers will have wasted $143,000.

It is clear, at least at this point, the Region 12 school district faces a rocky road in seeking a solution for its declining enrollment numbers.