School Board Considers Its Next Move

By Martha Coville

The Board of Education met Tuesday evening to plan its next move in the wake of the failure of the Board of Finance to reach a consensus on how to progress with the Newtown High School expansion project and other projects on the district’s capital improvement plan (CIP).

Board member Lillian Bittman and School District Business Manager Ronald Bienkowski noted that plans to go forward with the proposed expansion are scheduled very tightly. If the Board of Finance does not approve the expansion plan soon, the Board of Education will be unable to meet the March 4 deadline set by the state Department of Education for a grant to fund the project. Missing that deadline would push the project back a year.

School board member Kathy Fetchick said that the Board of Education needs to work with the Board of Finance to find a way to approve the plan in a timely manner. “We’ve just got to let them work through the numbers,” she said. “They’ve got these debt caps, and that’s a good thing for the schools.”

Ms Fetchick was alluding to the ten percent debt cap set by the town. Traditionally, Newtown spends no more than ten percent of its total budget on borrowing costs. Ms Fetchick said that the school district benefits from the arrangement. The town’s low debt cap allows it to borrow money from grant agencies at a lower interest rate, leaving more money for education and municipal expenses.

Board chair Elaine McClure and Ms Bittman agreed with Ms Fetchick, but said they were not sure how to meet the Board of Finance in the middle. Ms McClure said that she had discussed ways to lower the cost of the expansion plan with architectural firm Fletcher Thompson. But she said that she agreed with the architects, who said that nearly all the design items in the plan were essential to the renovation.

Ms McClure said that one option might be to separate the costs of renovating the high school’s playing fields from the cost of the expanding the high school itself. The current $38.8 million expansion plan calls for a new artificial turf football field and a new track. Ms McClure said separating the components of the plan would give the Board of Finance the option of approving the project without the cost of the athletic fields. But, she said, “I think the town wants the academics, and I think they want the athletics.”

Board of Education member David Nanavaty said the Board of Finance continues to rehash questions he thought were settled nearly a year and a half ago. He reminded the Board of Education that the Board of Finance had agreed to the $41 million plan on December 18, 2006. “The argument that was suggested last night was specious at best,” he said.

The Board of Education did not agree to any modifications to the proposed expansion plan. They will meet with the Board of Finance again on Thursday, January 24.

Public Participation Rules Changed

Following their review of the high school expansion, the board unanimously approved changes to public participation rules. Previously, residents were only allowed to address items already on the meeting’s agenda. Public participation was also scheduled at the beginning of each meeting, which prevented residents from commenting on discussions they had heard that evening. David Nanavaty said, “I think anyone who’s willing to sit here as long as the board is, should be given the opportunity to talk about anything they want.”

Ms McClure said, “We always used to have two public participations. I know that former superintendent Thomas Jokubaitis, and [current] superintendent Dr Robinson are in favor of having two public participations, and having the first one limited to agenda items, and the second one not limited to anything.”

Board member Anna Weidemann said she agreed with the motion. She suggested that each resident limit his or her remarks to three minutes, and that they be asked not to duplicate remarks already made. “Its up to the chair to put a time limit on it, and to say not to duplicate remarks,” she said.

Ms Bittman and Ms Fetchick said they thought further changes might be necessary. “I just want to make sure we have some kind of mechanism for responding [to the public] so that people don’t think its falling on deaf ears,” she said. Ms Fetchick said she agreed. “After public participation, if there’s anything we can respond to, we do. Because people do feel that they’re not being heard.”