The Board of Education decided unanimously during its special meeting on Wednesday, June 24, that Hawley Elementary School will not be closed for the 2016-17 school year, and the board will continue a general discussion on the best use of district facilities.

No Newtown school, according to the meeting, will be closed for the 2016-17 school year due to declining enrollment.

The decision came after nearly 2½ hours of public comment, which primarily focused on requesting the school board not close Hawley. The special meeting had been moved to the Newtown High School auditorium to accommodate the expected crowd, which would have overcrowded Newtown Municipal Center’s Council Chamber, the board’s regular meeting location. A large crowd attended. 

A number of signs for the SOS (Save Our Schools) campaign, led by Hawley PTA members and parents, were outside the high school on Tuesday as everyone arrived for the meeting. Some signs were also brought into the high school’s auditorium with community members. One group of Hawley former and current students held a sign that read “Save Our Schools (heart) 6/24 NHS.” It echoed the sentiment of a growing number of signs that had been placed around town within the past week.

Hawley PTA President Kristen Bonacci said until recently her most stressful decisions involved a popcorn machine, but in the last three weeks she has been working “day and night” to put together a grassroots campaign, which has included petitions, the SOS signs, emails, collecting data, and meetings with town officials and experts.

While saying the SOS campaign is made up of parents who are not political experts or experts on school closings, Ms Bonacci said, “We are parents that care about the short-term and long-term impacts of a school closing, and not just on our children but on our entire community.”

If the school board took Hawley “off the table” during Wednesday’s meeting, Ms Bonacci said the SOS campaign members would continue work to find solutions.

“We are here now and we will remain present for all of our children,” said Ms Bonacci, “and we are focused on finding cost saving values and value-added solutions to Newtown’s schools.”

During the public participation portion of the evening, speakers encouraged the school board to keep all of Newtown’s elementary schools open, some asked for the board to focus on closing Newtown Middle School, some questioned the emotional and social impact closing a school would have on the community’s youth, a number of people spoke to Hawley School’s history and its benefactress Mary Elizabeth Hawley, some expressed concern about property values, and some asked what closing a school the same year as the town is expected to open the new Sandy Hook Elementary School building will do to the town’s credibility.

Former first selectman Herb Rosenthal, who also served as the Board of Ed chair, echoed a number of speakers when he asked, “I’m here this evening to urge the Board of Education not to make a decision at this time to close any school. I firmly believe it would be a serious mistake to decide to close a school before the new Sandy Hook School is open.”

Before public participation, Board of Education Chair Keith Alexander said he thinks the Facility and Enrollment Study Committee, which prepared a report that Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi Jr presented to the board on June 2, did accurate work.

The June 2 presentation shared seven possible school configurations for the district, and included negative and positive aspects for each option. Closing an elementary school, with a focus on Hawley, was outlined in four configurations. Three of the configurations outlined closing Newtown Middle School.

Mr Alexander said he thinks his board should now look at the data more, “but not with the concern over everyone’s head” of closing a facility in the 2016-17 school year.

Dr Erardi thanked the Facility and Enrollment Study Committee for its work, Hawley Elementary School Principal Chris Morretti, and the Hawley parents, “who went out of their way to be respectful partners in this conversation.”

Board of Education member John Vouros said he wanted the people present for the meeting to understand that their concerns are heard by the board, and he encouraged them to stay involved during future budget discussions.

After Dr Erardi presented a report prepared by Melissa Brymer, the district’s mental health advisor, for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, he said the report would not be fully discussed during Wednesday’s meeting but would be available online on the district’s website (newtown.k12.ct.us) by Thursday, June 25.

For change to occur in a community that has experienced trauma and loss, Dr Brymer recommended in the report a “concrete and step-wise plan to move forward,” a longer timeframe for the community to respond, opportunities to promote and foster choice, discussions that instill tolerance for multiple voices and different experiences, and “frequent, transparent, and consistent communications” are needed.

Dr Brymer also recommended addressing ongoing safety concerns with regular messaging, fostering cohesion and a sense of belonging, reducing disruptions to healthy social connections and the creation of new connections, and facilitating the integration of school communities.

Board of Education Secretary Kathy Hamilton said the school board never had the chance to discuss the full findings and data regarding closing a school.

“I’m hoping that will be part of something that we move toward,” she said.

Board members generally said they feel the board should continue conversations around the best use of the district’s facilities, and BOE Vice Chair Laura Roche requested all of those meetings be as public as possible.

After discussion, the board voted unanimously, with member David Freedman not present for the meeting, to support a resolve that the board would not make changes to facilities for the 2016-17 school year and that it would “continue an ongoing conversation with regard to the use of facilities including community discussion and input on town resources.”

On Thursday, June 25, the SOS campaign announced on its Facebook page that its new name is Support Our Schools.

This story was updated to reflect the SOS campaign name change on June 25.