To the Editor:
As a Roxbury resident, skeptical of the Region 12 BOE’s proposal to amend our regional plan and close our hometown elementary schools, I recently obtained a copy of Region 12 Report on the Proposed Amendment to the Regionalization Plan from our town clerk’s office.
Connecticut Statute 10-47c requires that “The regional BOE shall prepare a report including the question to be presented, file a copy with the Commissioner of Education and the clerk of each member town, and make copies of such report available to the public.”
While this report filed by the Region 12 BOE may be in compliance with the letter of the law, it misses the mark in many ways.
The purpose of the report should be to provide the people of Region 12 with the information necessary to cast a vote, insuring an informed electorate. Rather than preparing such a report, the Region 12 BOE decided to recycle their 2012 Strategic Plan and paste its referendum question within it.
The report contains no specific data relevant to the referendum question; i.e. enrollment projections, projected class sizes, transportation costs, length of bus rides, school start/end times, transportation costs, staffing costs or building by building efficiency data.
In deference to the original authors of the report (a dedicated group of citizens and educators from the region), they probably did not anticipate that their report would be
“bootlegged” and presented as the Region 12 referendum report.
At the March 13 board meeting, Superintendent Cosentino stated that it was ultimately her decision to submit the above mentioned report, and that the inclusion of any specific data would have been “redundant,” as it was already available on the Region 12 BOE website.
Apparently, insuring a well informed electorate is not on Dr. Cosentino’s “to do’ list.
Paul Lang
Roxbury
As a Roxbury resident, skeptical of the Region 12 BOE’s proposal to amend our regional plan and close our hometown elementary schools, I recently obtained a copy of Region 12 Report on the Proposed Amendment to the Regionalization Plan from our town clerk’s office.
Connecticut Statute 10-47c requires that “The regional BOE shall prepare a report including the question to be presented, file a copy with the Commissioner of Education and the clerk of each member town, and make copies of such report available to the public.”
While this report filed by the Region 12 BOE may be in compliance with the letter of the law, it misses the mark in many ways.
The purpose of the report should be to provide the people of Region 12 with the information necessary to cast a vote, insuring an informed electorate. Rather than preparing such a report, the Region 12 BOE decided to recycle their 2012 Strategic Plan and paste its referendum question within it.
The report contains no specific data relevant to the referendum question; i.e. enrollment projections, projected class sizes, transportation costs, length of bus rides, school start/end times, transportation costs, staffing costs or building by building efficiency data.
In deference to the original authors of the report (a dedicated group of citizens and educators from the region), they probably did not anticipate that their report would be
“bootlegged” and presented as the Region 12 referendum report.
At the March 13 board meeting, Superintendent Cosentino stated that it was ultimately her decision to submit the above mentioned report, and that the inclusion of any specific data would have been “redundant,” as it was already available on the Region 12 BOE website.
Apparently, insuring a well informed electorate is not on Dr. Cosentino’s “to do’ list.
Paul Lang
Roxbury
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