The Missing Option: Leadership

The Board of Education conducted a community forum on a tentative list of four options for addressing overcrowded conditions at Newtown High School. Despite the suddenness of its scheduling, a large crowd showed up, clearly concerned about the potential for school overcrowding to overwhelm both Newtown’s educational program and its tax rate.

Many of those who spoke had both questions and opinions, but not a lot of information. In that respect, they had a lot in common with the Board of Education and other town officials who came to listen. Ostensibly, the school board was looking for guidance from the public. The public, on the other hand, is looking for leadership — and that, along with information, seems to be in short supply.

The Board of Education has been studying alternatives for expanding the high school for more than two years. The list of options it provided for consideration this week, however, was still more conceptual than substantive. As Legislative Council Chairman Will Rodgers put it last week, “To call these four ideas ‘options’ at this point is to give them too much credit.” Mr Rodgers’ skepticism reflected the frustration and impatience coming from the council, the Board of Finance, and the selectman’s office over the pace and scope of the school board’s quest for an answer to its space problems at the high school. After two years of work, the school board still has its finger in a swirling wind of pros and cons. With no concrete conclusions in sight, the superintendent of school’s goal of submitting a finalized and approved new high school plan to the State Board of Education by June 30 seems laughable.

The school board’s continuing failure to get any traction on this issue should be a signal to the Legislative Council, Board of Selectmen, and the Board of Finance that it is time for them to take the lead.

As these other town leaders know, the school board’s challenge to upgrade facilities is only part of the puzzle they have to solve in the coming years. The town’s capital improvement plan, which looks ahead just five years, has significant expenditures earmarked for open space acquisition, technology park development, fire equipment, senior center expansion, police department renovations, and beyond that, a new town hall. Perhaps this protracted shuffling of high school expansion options could be moved along more quickly by a comprehensive assessment of all the town’s capital needs in the context of Newtown’s financial and real property resources. Some of these options may quickly evaporate in the hard light of reality, and some new, more directed planning will take their place. One can only hope.

Community forums are not a substitute for leadership. Long-term debate is not a substitute for long-term solutions. Newtown needs and wants its elected leaders to do the research, make some informed judgments based on that research, recommend a plan, and then invite public comments and criticism. After that the ultimate community forum — a referendum — will be in order. Then maybe Newtown can get on with its future.