Pursuit of the Wrong Direction on April 9, 2007
Last night, April 9, the Region 12 Board of Education voted to exclude the option of keeping separate elementary schools in the three Towns comprising the Region. In a referendum scheduled for June 19, voters will have only a yes/no option on a consolidated school in Roxbury. Some background: Last spring, the Board sponsored two referenda. In the first, the voters favored the concept of renovating the existing three schools over building a new consolidated school by 1725 to 1,022. If that were a Presidential election, we’d call it a landslide. The second referendum for $37.4 million to fund those renovations failed, with 1485 voters against and 1317 for. These results suggest the voters want town schools, but not at any price.
Since then, in a concept called build to suit, each town worked to produce their own school renovation plans (I am a member of the Roxbury build to suit committee, but speak here as a private citizen). One way these plans could have been instituted was through an inter-municipal agreement between the three towns and the Board. As drafted, the towns would have paid for their own renovations, and leased the buildings to the Region, as is now done. This agreement is dead, killed by legal potholes, Washington’s withdrawal, and the Board’s vote last night not to participate.
Bridgewater’s and Roxbury’s build to suit committees have each developed fresh, viable renovation plans for their schools that are smaller and far less costly than the Board’s renovation plans that failed last year. (Washington elected to stick with essentially the same plans that failed at referendum.) Bridgewater’s plans are far enough advanced for an estimator to price construction at $7.7 million. Roxbury’s will be sent to an estimator shortly. That cost is expected to be somewhat higher than Bridgewater’s, but far less than Roxbury’s portion of the failed Board sponsored renovation. And most of what Roxbury plans to do would be eligible for the same level of state reimbursement as the consolidated school option.
These plans could and should be put to referendum by the Board, just as they intend to do with the consolidation option, but considering them was a non-starter at last night’s Board meeting. The Board considered only whether to put a consolidated school on property in Roxbury up against a rehash of the Board’s failed three-school renovation plans, or to present the consolidated school as the sole option at referendum.
The reason given for not considering the Towns’ plans is that there is insufficient time to review and hold a referendum on them. To be eligible for State reimbursement (of approximately 30%) in a given year, school building projects must have passed local referendum and been submitted to the State prior to June 30. The sense is that the rate of reimbursement will be lower next year, due to State budget reapportionment. There is also concern that construction costs will escalate. While the former is a legitimate concern, escalating costs are less worrisome than many think. We tend to forget the up side of inflation – as costs rise, so too does income. The real difference in construction costs in constant dollars is far smaller than it appears by simply viewing the cost increase.
The Board is so concerned with the State deadline, that the plan that they intend to bring to the voters in June is not fully developed. It is a “strategic number”. They would proceed with that number, presumably continuing to work with their current architects on a no-bid basis to do what’s possible within that budget. In fact, it appears that the consolidated school’s plans aren’t even as far along as the Towns’ plans.
To fully represent the interests of the voters, the Board needs to actively consider the renovation plans that have been developed by Bridgewater’s and Roxbury’s build to suit committees, and they need to look at Washington Primary through the same lens. The cost estimates that Bridgewater and Roxbury have developed represent a huge savings over the plans that failed at referendum last year, and these savings are considerably more than what we stand to lose by missing this year’s State deadline. Missing the deadline would buy us time to fully investigate the options, both of a consolidated school in Roxbury and of fresh renovation plans that would keep a school in each town.
Despite what the voters expressed in past referenda, last night’s meeting showed that a majority of the Board so favors the idea of a consolidated school that they want to shut down debate on the idea of keeping a school in each town.
It’s time the Region 12 Board of Education paid attention to the voters. I urge those who’d like to have a three school option considered to contact their Board members. It’s not too late to ask them to drop the idea of rushing an ill considered plan to referendum. I further urge supporters of three schools to attend their town meetings and vote out those Board members who supported the current referendum. Those Board members are Irene Allen, Valerie Anderson, David Baron, Michelle Gorra, Sheila Gross, and Jim Hirschfield, with Gary Steinmann abstaining. Opposing the current referendum were Ed Wainwright, Mardie Ford, Matt Franjola, Alan Brown, and Larry O’Toole. And if the referendum goes to vote as currently planned, I urge everyone to vote no, if only to foster a thoughtful debate of our options.
Andy Engel
Roxbury, CT
No comments:
Post a Comment