Gilbert agreement is both relieving and distressing

Tuesday night’s announcement that representatives from The Gilbert School and Winchester Public Schools had agreed on the draft agreement of a three-year contract between the semi-private high school and the public school system was relieving on one hand but somewhat distressing on the other.Gilbert and the municipal school board have agreed that seventh- and eighth-graders will be relocated to Gilbert beginning this fall. The agreement was expected to be ratified Thursday night, and the fact that board members from both sides were able to reach a final accord was good news.Board member Susan Hoffnagle added that she was pleased with the negotiations, because Gilbert agreed to a clause that requires any annual budget arbitration to happen after the town budget is passed at referendum. That means representatives from both boards will have hard numbers in their hands each year when they negotiate any adjustments to finalized budgets.But Hoffnagle also listed a number of areas in which Winchester board members made little progress in their negotiations. For instance, the school board agreed not to offer vouchers to students seeking to matriculate outside of the Winsted-Gilbert system, while agreeing to a clause designating Gilbert as the town’s official high school. Winchester was unable to increase representation on Gilbert’s governing board (the town is currently allowed three of nine seats on the board), and language concerning budget arbitration still favors The Gilbert School.In essence, the contract between the town and the high school will be the same as it has been in previous years and decades, with a private board making decisions related to fiscal and educational issues in the Winsted high school community. That independent decision-making ability will now extend to the seventh and eighth grades, as well.On the financial end, no one involved in the negotiations to send the seventh and eighth grades to Gilbert has been able to specify where the monetary savings will be found. The proposed 2011-12 school budget for the town asks for a whopping 10 percent increase, to $23 million and change, and the notion that services need to be slimmed down and streamlined seems to have been forgotten. Townspeople should be wondering aloud why closing a public school and sending two grades up to Gilbert isn’t saving them a load of taxpayer money.Yes, it is a relief that the negotiations have resulted in an agreement and that preparations are underway for the transitions happening at the beginning of the 2011-12 school year. But it is fair for Winsted voters to question the details and demand assurance that they are getting the most out of their tax dollars.