Windsor
WSESU Superintendent Dave Baker said on Wednesday the committee will meet following public forums next week, and he believes a decision will be made the following week on whether to support one of the four options under consideration.
The committee has been meeting for nearly two years trying to come up with a merger plan to satisfy the requirements under Act 46, the state’s school consolidation law.
The next step is a final round of public forums in each district beginning with West Windsor at 6 p.m. on Monday in Story Memorial Hall; followed by Weathersfield, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the school; Hartland at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Hartland school; and finally, 6 p.m. on Thursday at Windsor High School.
“We are close to reaching a consensus as far as what option will be presented to the state,” said committee member Amy McMullen, who is chairwoman of the Windsor School Board.
The forums, which will include exit surveys, are being held “to get a feel from our communities on which option is most likely to get voter support,” McMullen said.
Another committee member, Sarah Stewart Taylor, of Hartland, is encouraging residents to come out and take advantage of this last opportunity to ask questions and express their views.
“We are hoping for a good turnout and a deep discussion on how we deliver education in our four towns.” Taylor said. “We have researched it and understand the consequences of each option and we need to hear which way resident want to go.”
If the state approves the plan recommended by the committee, it would then come back to residents for a vote, probably later this spring.
The fourth option, called the alternative plan, would mean petitioning the state to maintain the existing supervisory union, modify with “fewest school districts practical” or let the state defined the structure.
The committee originally scheduled public forums for right after Town Meeting Day on March 7, but Baker said after the first forum in Weathersfield the committee decided it had more work to do.
“The committee wants to spend a little more time on the 2 by 2 and 3 by 1 (options) to get a good handle on them,” Baker said, referring to two of the four merger plans the committee is considering.
Under 2 by 2, Hartland and Weathersfield would form one district with grades pre-K-8 in each town and high school choice. The second district would have West Windsor and Windsor in a pre-K-12 district, where West Windsor would give up high school choice and send all its students to Windsor after sixth grade. Under 3 by 1, Hartland, Weathersfield and West Windsor would keep school choice beyond eighth grade (sixth grade in West Windsor), and Windsor would remains as is with no choice. That option, which keeps the current structure in place, would require approval from the Legislature to receive incentives, according to the committee.
A unified district option would mean one school board for pre-K-12 for all four towns, with all students attending Windsor after sixth or eighth grade.
The forums are being held in the same week because there is a voter-approval deadline of June 30 imposed by the state Board of Education for the 2 by 2 option, Baker said.
“If the Act 46 committee can decide on an option, then a proposal will be sent to the Agency of Education. If approved at that level, it goes to the state Board,” Baker said in a posting on the supervisory union’s website. “If approved there, it is then warned and the option goes before the voters.”
Baker and McMullen said “choice” remains the one of the biggest obstacles to coming up with a plan that can win the backing of voters in each town.
“It is one of the considerations,” McMullen said, noting that there are other “opportunities and challenges for each of the merger options” the committee wants to explain to the communities.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
