Board tables decision on building closure

WINSTED — Faced with a roomful of residents anxious to know the final decision on which school building will close before the start of the 2011-12 school year, the Winchester Board of Education decided not to make a decision Tuesday night. The issue was tabled for another two weeks.Board of Education Chairman Kathleen O’Brien expressed frustration at the meeting, noting that the board has had the issue of closing a building on its agenda since November, when board members decided to move the town’s seventh and eighth grades to the semi-private Gilbert School. Moving the grades up to the high school was expected to result in the closure of one of the three buildings in Winsted’s public K-through-8 school system.Winsted resident Frank Gallo was among the audience members Tuesday night who wondered why the board hadn’t made a decision yet. “My question to the board is, why was this tabled if you had a committee study which school was the best school to close? We have a lot of parents who want to know where their children are going to go to school in the fall,” he said.Fellow resident Holly Hanecak added that she was “tired of hearing conversations over money” and that she wanted to hear the board make a decision that was in the best interest of children and parents in the community.Some in the audience expressed hope that the board would not act on a recent recommendation from the town’s School Building Committee to close Batcheller Elementary School, while others urged action.School Building Committee Chairman Joseph Beadle made a point of personally handing out copies of an April 5 report to members of the school board, including detailed structural assessments of the schools, air-quality reports and observations made during walk-throughs of the buildings. The report concludes that it would make the most sense to close Batcheller and move all elementary school classes to Hinsdale Elementary School. Middle school classes, up to grade seven, would remain at Pearson Middle School.Despite having the report, school board members said they had not had enough time to study it, and said they wanted Superintendent of Schools Blaise Salerno to review the materials and present his own conclusions. Salerno said he is working in an understaffed situation and had been unable to make a decision yet about closing a school building.Board members voted to table the issue for two weeks and scheduled a meeting on Thursday, April 28, with the hope of making a final decision on the issue.