New task force get cracking

WINSTED — The town’s new Education Task Force spent most of its first meeting this week discussing the general issues it will seek to address, as well as how and when the committee will meet.

The task force — which met for an hour Monday, July 12, at The Gilbert School — was created earlier this year by the Board of Selectmen.

It is facilitated by Town Manager Wayne Dove and made up of Winsted Mayor Candy Perez, Winchester Board of Education Chairman Kathleen O’Brien, Gilbert School Corp. Chairman Steven Sedlack, Winchester Superintendent of Schools Blaise Salerno and Gilbert Superintendent David Cressy.

In addition, the task force has a larger “governance subcommittee,� which also includes Winchester school board members Paul O’Meara and Christine Royer, Gilbert school board members Charles Seaback and Elaine Fortuna, and selectmen Glen Albenesius and George Closson.

All of the subcommittee members were in attendance at Monday’s meeting, with the acception of O’Meara and Closson.

The task force’s purpose is to find long-term solutions to the town’s educational concerns, such as making the system more financially effective and efficient, as well as seeking ways to improve student performance and strengthen classroom learning.

Dove said Monday that during smaller group meetings with Salerno and Cressy over the past few weeks, the three men identified a wide array of “critical path items� that need to be addressed during the committee’s work.

These items include: implementing fiscal budget controls between Winchester and Gilbert school boards, considering whether the town should move to a pre-K to 12th grade system that is overseen by a single superintendent, improving business management. Gilbert’s autonomy and the problems of funding special education will also be considered.

Currently, the Winchester Public School system serves the town’s kindergarten through 8th grade students, with Winsted paying tuition to send its 9th through 12th graders to the semi-private high school.

The Winchester Board of Education and The Gilbert School Corp. signed a new one year tuition contract on July 6. The short term agreement — which expires June 30, 2011 — was put in place to give the task force time to complete its work, which could include recommending a total reconfiguration of the town’s current educational system.

During contract negotiations, Gilbert school officials proposed moving Pearson Middle School’s 7th and 8th grade students to the high school. They said the move could save the town some $700,000 a year.

Other school and town officials have proposed bringing Gilbert into the Winchester Public School fold, creating a single K-12 system, with a single superintendent.

Although there has been  tension between the town, the Winchester school board and the Gilbert school board, both Cressy and Salerno said they were confident and hopeful that the task force will be able to find a solution that will meet the needs of all three sides.

“I continue to have faith that we can resolve this issue,� Salerno said during Monday’s meeting.

Cressy agreed.

“I am confident we can find a compromise,� he said.

Dove said the task force’s work is tantamount to spearheading the town’s financial recovery.

Because, he said, Winsted cannot move forward in any significant way with economic development or encourage investment without having a school system that can deliver academic excellence in a fiscally responsible way, which would encourage new families to move in and current residents to remain here.

“Right now, we are on the bottom of the pile. But the good news is there is no way but up,� he said.

“And the objective of this group is to make it work,� he said.

The committee agreed to hold its regularly scheduled meetings every other Thursday in the Gilbert library at 7 p.m., with more afternoon work sessions on the off-weeks. The task force will hold its next meeting on July 22.

At that meeting, Winchester Board of Education members are expected to present their objectives and goals for the public school system. And the Gilbert representatives will discuss their “point of view� on the high school’s future, as well as a brief history of its past governance.

Minutes of the committee’s meetings will be filed and available in the
Town Clerk’s office.