New School Facilities Planning Committee Named

On Monday, Board of Education Chairman Gavin B. Forrester, III, named a new, smaller seven member Long Range Facilities Planning Committee to review Stratford school configuration options going forward. 

At its regular meeting at Board of Education offices Monday, Forrester named three board members and four non-school members to the committee that will be chaired by Joseph Crudo.

Much smaller than the committee it replaces, the new committee consists of board members Crudo, David Kennedy and Charles Lindberg. Non-board committee members named by Forrester are Pat Smith, Eric Lazaro, Andrea Veilleux and Town Planner David Killeen. All but Smith and Veilleux served on the previous Long Range committee that last met on Feb. 15. 

Forrester noted that the previous committee of 22 members conducted itself “under very difficult and at times very emotional” circumstances. “Quite a lot of data was assembled,” he noted, with the “focus now to take the data and use it to formulate a plan going forward that would effectively and efficiently utilize the facilities we have available,” and where possible to create “efficiencies of scale.”

Citing a two-year reprieve in the state mandate to provide sixth graders with direct guidance counseling, Forrester reaffirmed Monday night that sixth graders will remain in place and no schools will be closed for at least one more year. 

But he told members Monday that despite the reprieve on both the sixth grade move and closing of schools, it did not preclude taking either or both actions in the near future. 

“The state of CT has given us two-year reprieve in providing guidance counselors to our sixth grades,” he said. However, “the statute still remains on the books and we eventually will need” to provide guidance counseling to sixth grade students. 

Stratford’s public school system currently consists of seven K-6 elementary schools, two 7th and 8th grade middle schools, two grade 9-12 high schools and Stratford Academy, which features the K-2 Honeyspot House and grades 3-6 Johnson House. 

However, in response to very tight town finances and indications from the administration of Mayor John Harkins that the Board of Education should plan for a 0% budget increase for the 2011-2012 school year, the 22-member Long Range Facilities Planning Committee was formed last Fall and held its first meeting on Nov. 1, 2010. 

Chaired by Crudo and consisting of board, administration, Town Council, town officials and other community members, the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee met on Nov. 1 to discuss its mandate, which, in the words of Supt. of Schools Irene Cornish, was to review the “important and difficult decisions that will be made and recommended to the full Board for action.” 

At that meeting, the Long Range Committee was introduced to consultants from Milone & MacBroom, Inc., hired by the town through the services of the Cooperative Educational Services (CES), consultants who would guide the committee through the maze of analyzing the school facilities, population trends, among other factors, which would form the basis for the “hard choice” that educators would make – or not. 

The committee met twice more in 2010, and four times in January and February 2011 amid an increasing crescendo of consternation and concern among parents and some educators, who feared the closing of one or more elementary schools would ruin the neighborhood concept, and force redistricting and increased busing. 

In a dramatic and packed meeting on Jan. 31, the committee recommended that the town’s sixth grades be moved to the middle schools as part of a long-range plan to save money, a change that was expected to be implemented in time for the 2011-2012 school year this coming September.

The committee then met again on Feb. 7, in the Stratford High School cafeteria and heard a detailed presentation on the feasibility of relocating Honeyspot House's K-2 program to either adjacent Stratford Academy - Johnson House, or to Lordship School. 

In addition, the committee heard briefer presentations on the pros and cons on the effects that the separate closing of four elementary schools might have, again as part of a district-wide effort to save money. The four schools were identified as Franklin, Lordship, Nichols and Wilcoxson elementary schools, respectively. 

Finally, at its meeting on Feb. 15, and before another packed audience at Stratford High, Robert Cody made a motion “that the Committee recommend no school be closed, and to continue the Committee’s work process of gathering data, as part of strategic planning.” The motion also said “the sixth grade would remain intact as is, and would not incur any change until the 2012-2013 school year.” 

The motion was carried unanimously, which brought the audience to cheers. 

On Monday, Forrester told the board that it was his hope that the new committee would meet monthly and have some firm recommendations ready by mid-summer on the issue of how the school system can provide guidance counseling to sixth graders “in as quick and efficient a manner as possible. 

“I would like to have some semblance of a plan in place by mid-summer” … whether or not the town has its own financial issues remaining to address, or if there’s a change in state policy or funding levels for education, Forrester said. 

“I would like to see that plan in place … and I would like to give at least one year’s notice on major school changes” that might be recommended, with school closings not off the table, but nothing that will be rushed into, either.