A delegation from the Board of Education attended Wednesday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting and agreed that a public session should be held in February to discuss the desirability of a cooperative educational agreement between Colebrook and Norfolk.
Last November, following months of talks between the two towns’ top officials, Colebrook held a meeting attended by both boards of selectmen, the Colebrook school board and some members of the Colebrook public. Notification of the meeting was spotty in Norfolk, however, and some school board members said they did not know of it.
Colebrook First Selectman Brad Bremer has called for volunteers from his town to sit on a two-town committee to discuss consolidation. The proposed committee would discuss the pros and cons of consolidation and would precede any formalized effort.
But a public meeting should be held in Norfolk to give residents an opportunity to speak “before we even think of forming a committee,” Selectman Sandy Evans said Wednesday.
Consolidation efforts have seen two previous defeats, most recently in 2015. Norfolk First Selectman Matt Riiska said past efforts focused on costs, but that he is focusing on educational and social opportunities for students.
Norfolk’s Botelle School has 59 students and Colebrook, 64. Botelle’s population is predicted to decline by 10 more students in coming years.
Riiska noted that the town’s 2019 Plan of Conservation and Development predicts a decline in Norfolk’s general population (more than 1,700 in 2010) to about 1,300 by 2040. In addition, few young families can afford to live in Norfolk, so the current population is aging, with a median age of 54.1, and 13.8 percent of the population being 65 or older.
School Board Chairman Virginia Coleman-Prisco asked if tax incentives might draw younger families to town. Riiska said he would take the idea to the finance board but added that families today usually have only one or two children.
“We would need to have 30 families with two children to bring the population of Botelle up to 120 kids,” he said. “It’s just not going to happen.”