Friday, July 18, 2014

Region 12 leaders remain upbeat


New Milford Spectrum

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.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Roses & Thorns

New Milford Spectrum

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.