BOE reverses decision on Bakerville School

NEW HARTFORD — After four months of controversy, the Board of Education decided at its special meeting on Monday, March 28, to reverse its decision to close Bakerville School.

In December, the Board of Education unanimously decided to close Bakerville School, located at 51 Cedar Lane.

The school was established in 1941, and it offers prekindergarten, kindergarten, first and second grades.

However, since the board’s decision, residents have increasingly spoken up against the closing of the school.

At an advisory referendum held on Tuesday, March 15,1,275 residents voted for the school to remain open, while 487 residents voted for the school to be closed.

Residents against original plans

Originally, the board decided to continue its plans to close the school at a special meeting held at Antolini School on March 22.

The video from the March 22 meeting is available online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=afxx4IIIy_k.

At the beginning of the meeting a public comment session was held, with several residents speaking in favor of keeping Bakerville School open, including Karin Jones, who said she is a fourth grade teacher at the school.

Jones read a letter to the board that she said represented the fourth-grade team at Bakerville School.

“We know it has been a difficult few months, and recognize that ultimately we all want what is best for the children in New Hartford,” Jones said. “We feel that it is important now to give you input for what our students need next year. Moving forward, we believe this class will benefit greatly by staying in five sections. Smaller class sizes and flexibility in groupings have proven successful for our students, and we believe it should continue. Because of the smaller class sizes, the successes that we have seen this far have involved classroom climates that are more conducive to learning, students who are more engaged in learning for longer periods of time. New students with academic needs have come to our attention and are receiving support. Behavioral needs are also receiving greater attention.”

Under the plan to close the school, prekindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade classes would have moved to New Hartford Elementary School.

Second-grade classes would have moved to Ann Antolini school, where currently third- through sixth-grade classes are taught.

“The closing of Bakerville School will limit our options for separating students that need to be apart, and the ability to provide academic supports to those who are finally receiving it,” Jones said. “We strongly encourage you to keep Bakerville open and retain the current five sections so that these children can get the educational experiences they deserve.”

First Selectman Dan Jerram was the next resident to speak, and said that he is a father of three children who went through the school district.

“The Board of Selectmen met on March 21 to review the results of the advisory referendum,” Jerram said. “In reviewing the results, we noted that 1,275 residents out of the 1,768 votes said no to closing the school. The total vote count is nearly four times more the vote count at a town referendum, which is typically 458. The votes cast represent a 40 percent voter turnout, which is much higher than a typical 10 percent voter turnout.”

Jerram said that the strong showing of voters at the advisory referendum shows that the issue of closing the Bakerville School is important to families in the town and not just the school community.

“While there is much to take away from the results, we also note that the distribution of the vote, between the first and second districts, indicates that residents from all over New Hartford voted for the school to remain open,” Jerram said. “Rejection of the question was universal town-wide. We heard comments from many town residents on why the school should remain open.”

Jerram said that the most prevalent reasons given by residents were: the limited cost savings in closing the school, potential impact on property values and concerns about larger class sizes in the future due to a lack of space.

“Most importantly, there is a general perception that the closure and the subsequent new re-configuration would not significantly improve the quality of education in a district that is already known to deliver a superior educational experience to its students,” Jerram said. “Ultimately, after considering all of the data above, the Board of Selectmen approved a motion to recommend that the Board of Education should accept the results of the advisory vote and reconsider their original decision to close the school. The people of our town petitioned for the right to speak on this issue, and they have spoken through the referendum vote. It is clear that they don’t want their school closed. They are being asked to be heard by the Board of Education. We, the Board of Selectmen, believe that the results of the advisory referendum should stand, and that the school should remain open. It represents the will of the people.”

BOE steadfast in original decision

After the public comment section of the meeting, a motion was made by Board of Education Vice Chairman Jen Benaitis to rescind the original motion to close Bakerville School.

The motion was seconded by board member Penny Miller.

Before the vote, board member Josh Adams said that the decision to close the school should be part of a discussion on the proposed budget for fiscal 2016-2017.

“I think that making this decision not as part of the budget discussion could possibly tie our hands if what we don’t know of the future happens in that the budget does not pass and we’re asked to cut money,” Adams said. “If we make the decision now without making a larger budget discussion, will our hands be tied if we need to find money to cut later?”

“To look at the budget, we need to know if we are moving forward with keeping the school open or not,” Benaitis said. “Then we can look at the budget and make the decisions.”

“What I’m suggesting is that if this board wants to keep Bakerville open, that the path of getting there would be to fund the opening of the school in the budget, get that through the budget cycle and approved,” Adams said. “Then we take action to not close the school. It’s a formality in one perspective. But what it will do is motivate people to vote for the budget.”

Board member Miller disagreed with Adams.

“I would rather give the townspeople our decision now to keep the school open, or if you wish to close it,” Miller said. “But I would hope that you would vote to keep it open. You could tell them that now so that, when they go to the budget vote, they will vote in favor of our budget.”

Miller’s comments met with applause from residents.

“Josh, I do understand what you are trying to say,” Benaitis said. “But there has been a lot going on for the past three months. To hold off on whether to or not going to rescind our decision to put [the school] back in the budget, is a disservice to the people in this room and who came out and voted. It’s a disservice to the town because, like Penny is saying, they want an answer. We owe it to them to give them an answer. I understand that you are worried about how we are going to do the budget and how it’s going to go. But we have been shown that the people of this town, when their hearts are involved in it — and Bakerville School is a big piece of that heart — they are going to fight for it.”

Despite the arguments by Benaitis and Miller, the motion to rescind the decision to close the school was defeated by a vote of 5-3.

Change of heart 

At the special meeting on March 28, the board reviewed the proposed budget for fiscal 2016-2017.

According to the meeting minutes, which are available online at www.town.new-hartford.ct.us, the board once again extensively discussed the closing of the school.

During the discussion of the proposed school budget, Adams made a motion to add $210,000 to the budget in order for the school to remain open.

The motion was passed by a vote of 6-1, while Benaitis abstained from the vote.

“I am not privy as to why some board members changed their votes,” board chairman Lundin wrote in an email to The Winsted Journal after the meeting.

In an interview after the meeting, resident Tom Buzzi, who is a co-organizer of the Coalition to Save Bakerville School, said that he is happy the board reversed its decision.

“I guess they got tired of all the angst in town, and of the back and forth between the different boards,” Buzzi said. “There has been a lot of angst in the town over the past four months, we just wanted to put it all behind us.”