This is the first of a three-part series on renewed discussions about consolidating the Norfolk and Colebrook elementary schools.
Since August, Norfolk and Colebrook’s first selectmen have renewed talks about consolidating the two communities’ elementary schools. Colebrook now services just 64 students and Norfolk’s Botelle Elementary, 59
When Colebrook First Selectman Brad Bremer served on the Board of Education 15 years ago, Colebrook had 125 students and Norfolk had 175, he reported. That would have created a combined enrollment of about 300 students. Now it would be 120. “That makes conversations imperative,” Bremer said.
Norfolk’s first selectman, Matt Riiska, who kicked off the current round of discussion with his August column in Norfolk Now, sees the situation as urgent, and not just financially. “We are doing a huge disservice to Norfolk kids,” he said. “We are doing the minimum we can educationally. The Board of Education doesn’t raise its budget, which is fine financially, but that’s not good enough. We need to think out of the box to see what we can do to provide the best education, socialization and diversity for the kids. Something has to be done.”
It is not the first time that some kind of cooperative arrangement has been discussed by the towns and, indeed, there are some mutual agreements already in place. But regionalization has been a hot-button issue through the years.
In the 1990s Region 7 member towns studied, developed and rejected a plan to combine grades pre-K to 12. The plan would have reduced layers of administration and have provided a coordinated curriculum program. In 2011, another study was developed and rejected; it would have combined grades K through six in the region.
The issue resurfaced in 2013 when a committee was formed to discuss regionalization or consolidation of the Colebrook and Norfolk elementary schools. Considerations covered what a consolidated board would look like, which school building would be used, what the administration would look like and how a budget would be developed for both daily operations and long-term capital improvements. That consolidation effort was voted down in 2015.
The situation has only worsened in the decade since with actual enrollments falling significantly short of theprojected 2024 enrollments of 84 students in Norfolk and 78 students in Colebrook.
“I felt even when there were 125 students that, socially, the students would have benefitted from larger class sizes,” said Bremer.
For his part, Riiska sees three possibilities:
First, that the two boards of education could reach a cooperative agreement that would not require a public vote, which he said state statute allows. Second, that the towns vote to regionalize or consolidate. And third, that grades pre-k through 12 be folded into Regional School District # 7, with the Region 7 Board of Education as the governing body for the high school, middle school and elementary schools.
The two selectmen have committed to talk and explore possibilities but, as Bremer said, “It will take hard work and open minds.”
Next week, we will look at educators’ responses to the renewed discussion.