Region 12 School Leases - Opinion by Specrum

Lease Renewals:

School lease committee needed shake-up

News-Times Staff

Article Last Updated: 12/06/2007 04:48:27 PM EST


Region 12 School Board Chairman Matthew Franjola showed strong leadership this week in readjusting the board's lease committee, which has the delicate task of finding agreement among Washington, Bridgewater and Roxbury.

Mr. Franjola reduced the size of the committee from seven to three members and in so doing removed two who have been at loggerheads -- Irene Allan and Ed Wainwright.

Ms. Allan has been intractable in her dealings with Bridgewater, the town Mr. Wainwright represents. Last month she sent a mass e-mail urging people, in essence, to annoy Bridgewater First Selectman Bill Stuart by encouraging an attorney who is suing that town about a non-education matter.
In the e-mail that she had asked recipients to pass along, she called Mr. Stuart a "bully."

Clearly she could not be effective in negotiating a lease with Mr. Stuart for the district's use of Burnham School in Bridgewater.

Mr. Wainwright is not as contentious as Ms. Allan, but he realistically acknowledged that it is for the better to remove both polarizing members.
The previous lease committee was "unworkable" with the seven members, Mr. Franjola said. Now whittled down to three, the committee can focus on the task at hand -- negotiating fair leases for the Region 12 district to use the elementary schools in the three towns.

The new lease committee has a member representing each of the three towns, plus Mr. Franjola and Superintendent of Schools Bruce Storm as ex-officio members.

Leases proposed by Bridgewater and Roxbury have been wildly apart from the district's expectation of $1 a year, so the first step is to find a compromise.
Time is critical here. A lease agreement is needed by the end of the month to enable the district to receive state reimbursement for renovations already completed at Burnham School.

Mr. Franjola became the district's school board chairman in July with a coin toss. He needed, therefore, to unify the board; his forceful handling of the lease issue indicates he is up to the challenge.

With the choice of whether to continue maintaining three separate elementary schools -- one in each town -- or construct a consolidated school likely going to referendum before June, strong, consensus-building leadership as exhibited by Mr. Franjola is required, and appreciated.