Leases for Three Schools Not Final Yet

03/12/2008

Residents Share Frustrations With Lack of Region 12 Leases

By: Ann Compton

WASHINGTON - Washington's Hank Martin was joined by two members of the Board of Education at the March 6 Board of Selectmen meeting in expressing consternation at the lack of resolution of the Region 12 primary school lease issue.

The state granted Region 12 an extension last December in filing an application for a $51,000 reimbursement on repairs to Bridgewater's Burnham School, completed last year.

The extension was based on finalizing 20-year leases between Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington and the region for the use of the primary schools by the end of February. Without a lease in place, the state will not grant the reimbursement.

Bridgewater and Roxbury are currently operating on a month-to-month basis; Washington has a yearly lease.

With the February deadline past, Mr. Martin questioned why the Board of Education has not been able to finalize the leases.

"I could not let this pass without saying every taxpayer should be outraged," said Mr. Martin. "Why did this happen?"

Neither the selectmen nor Board of Education members Valerie Andersen and Anthony Bedini had an answer, although the question elicited a number of possible reasons, and lengthy discussion.

Mr. Martin, former chairman of the Zoning Commission and a veteran of Washington town board and commissions, contends that the process was inefficient and insufficient.

"The Board of Education knew this matter had to be taken care of as soon as they approved the spending [for the Burnham repairs] last spring," he stressed. "So it isn't just two months that they wasted; it's more like 10 months."
Selectman James Brinton said he sat in on the final lease agreement meeting and believed an "agreement in principle" had been reached with the board, Bridgewater and Roxbury, when the meeting ended.

"The next day, the Board of Education rejected it," he reported.
Ms. Andersen attributes the trouble to board leadership, which she called "an incredible problem."

"There has been no communication, as there was in the past with the previous chair and the superintendent. The board was as out of the process as you were," she told the selectmen.

"I asked the chair to let the board know what was going on. I thought I was involved, but I was out in the cold."

First Selectman Mark Lyon agreed that he has yet to see any written communication on the leases, although he has been told there is a proposal coming to the towns' selectmen soon.

"If I do get anything in writing it will be the first written document I have received since November from the Board of Education or the Lease Committee," he said.
Mr. Bedini explained the board's position regarding the Burnham $51,000 reimbursement.

He said that under the towns' proposed leases, Region 12 would have been contractually obligated for the next 20 years to make repairs on the school buildings, even if a consolidated school is built and the existing buildings are returned to the towns.

Each town submitted a list of repairs it said was needed to each of the primary schools to be included in the lease agreement.

"The lists got bigger and bigger and changed weekly," he reported, "until finally it appeared that if you did everything on the list you wouldn't have to do any renovation. Those lists became unacceptable and the arguments got longer.

"Finally, it was decided the loss of money for Burnham School was not as bad as committing the board to 20 years of expenses down the line."
Mr. Bedini maintained that the accusation the board has put no money into fixing the school buildings is untrue.

"If you look at the budgets going back 10 years, there's at least $225,000 each year just for repairs. It's nonsense that we didn't fix anything," he said.

Mr. Brinton countered, "The Board of Ed has not put in the proper amount for the last 30 years. We cannot let the region build another school and let it fall into disrepair the way these three buildings have."

Mr. Martin called the entire process "dysfunctional."

"The board created a committee, then complained they couldn't get enough information from the committee they created.

"If there's a proposal available now, it could have been done two weeks ago."

"I hear your pain," Ms. Andersen told Mr. Martin. "I'm very frustrated with the process. It's not the administration, which has to work through a committee and board leadership that is out there in never-never land."

"If you think for a moment many of us on the board are happy with the way things are going, we're not," said Mr. Bedini.

"We really have three small boards," he continued, "the smallest of which is the most vocal. You need leadership to make it run as one. I'm not saying the leadership doesn't need to be tuned, but we don't have many people willing to put aside their town's agenda and come together with one voice.

"Maybe we could agree the sun is coming up, but most likely we'd argue about that. It's a fight for everything."

"I would feel better if the board showed some sense of urgency about this," stressed Mr. Martin.

"There should have been more information, more lease committee meetings, a lot more input," said Ms. Andersen. "Things are hidden from this Board of Ed. We don't get to see things until it's too late."

"This is an endless conversation about an impossible situation," observed
Selectman Richard Sears.

"We could spend a lot more time on this," concluded Mr. Lyon after nearly an hour's discussion, thanking the participants for their input.