Published 5:44 pm, Tuesday, March 18, 2014
The Region 12 Board of Education has decided to recommend a consolidated PK-12 school system with all students located on one campus. It would be foolish for the parents in the three towns to allow the younger children (PK-5) to be on the same campus as the middle/high school. The building and repair cost of $40 million is too expensive when the enrollment will drop from a high of 1,169 in 2003 to the 461 projected for 2023.
This proposal should be unacceptable to the taxpayers mainly because of the $40 million (plus interest) cost and declining enrollment.
There are other alternatives. Here's one without spending millions.
Primary, (pre-k-2), at Booth in Roxbury.
Intermediate, (grades 3-5), at Burnham in Bridgewater.
Middle School, (grades 6-8), at Shepaug in Washington
High School, (grades 9-12), at Shepaug in Washington
Washington would have 50 percent of the grades with Roxbury at 29 percent and Bridgewater at 21 percent. That is a realistic setup.
The benefits of having the early grade students together, but separate from the older students, are numerous for the district. Each school would have all students for that grade.
Downsizing savings would exceed $1.5 million and could start next year.
Washington grades go from 14 to 7 (-50 percent), Roxbury from 6 to 4 (-34 percent) and Bridgewater from 6 to 3 (-50 percent).
The current Region 12 Plan states that: Each town will have K-5 and there will be a school in each town.
That plan could be changed to say: Each town will have a school of at least three grades.
That compromise could pass a 1047-C regional vote and give the district more flexibility. A change to the plan will require a favorable vote in "each" town.
The work on the Long Range Committee has been a wasted effort when they again try a consolidated PK-5. Spending $142,000 to propose another consolidation without the stateSupreme Court mandated 1047c vote was a mistake.
Common sense calls for a "NO" vote for both questions on April 29.
Bridgewater
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