Roxbury Voter Message

NEWS TIMES LIVE:

Opinion Column

Jun 03 2007 12:00 AM

Region 12

Roxbury sends message, as turmoil continues

Gary Steinman, the vice chairman of the Region 12 Board of Education, lost his bid for re-election last week, a casualty of the dispute over what to do with the region's elementary schools.
Steinman, a Roxbury representative on the board, has been a supporter of building one "consolidated" elementary school to replace the three elementary schools in the Region 12 towns -- Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington. He has served as chairman of the board's building committee.
Roxbury and Bridgewater residents have tended to support maintaining an elementary school in each town, while Washington residents have been supportive of the consolidated school idea.
So Steinman's support of a consolidated school didn't mesh with the views of many Roxbury residents, and they voted him out of office.
The Region 12 board had been planning a June 19 referendum to ask voter approval of a plan to build a consolidated school on property in Roxbury.
The referendum was ill-advised. There is no consensus on a consolidated school and the board has refused to review new plans that have been put together to maintain an elementary school in each town.
But now the June 19 referendum has been canceled. The board failed to follow the law on giving full public notice of a public hearing on the consolidated proposal. A notice of the hearing was properly published, but not posted in each town. It was an accidental, technical error.
Irene Allan, the board chairman, said "it is preferable that we make certain all action the board takes is proper and appropriate, something that will definitely be our focus as we go forward to locate a new date for the referendum."
Making certain the law is followed is important, yet the board has not done that with questions raised by Roxbury and Bridgewater about changing the structure of elementary education in the region. They say each town, individually, has to approve such a change under state law.
The Region 12 board has dismissed that notion out of hand, the way Roxbury and Bridgewater concerns are typically treated these days by the Region 12 board.
Bridgewater has decided to reduce its payment to the Region 12 board by $15,000 because its three board members were excluded from a meeting of the board's litigation committee. Allan said the three Bridgewater representatives "do not support the basic positions of the Board of Education related to this particular issue."
So much for democracy. So much for neighborliness. Disagree on a consolidated school and you can't come to a meeting?
An elected board should be able to conduct itself and its business in a more positive manner. The forced cancellation of the referendum gives the Region 12 board a chance to regroup.
Why not take time to review the plans to maintain the local schools? Why not study the obvious problems with the site proposed for the consolidated school? Pushing for a new date for a referendum on a consolidated school will only cause more divisions.

Region 12 board needs change
News Times Live Editorial


Editors note:

Region 14 may follow the Statute Section 10-47c and have a referenda on the change of their original "Plan" from 1968. Woodbury is voting on sending that message to the board on June 12, 2007. District 12 is ignoring this required procedure before going to referendum on bonding a Consolidated School. Rules are made to be followed in a democracy.