The big rumor circulating among Winsted parents this past week has been that the town is going to close down at least one school and move grades seven and eight up to The Gilbert School in order to take advantage of space made free by a dwindling student population. The idea sounds like a bad one.
Under the tentative plan, which is being discussed at the administrative level, at least one public school would be closed and Pearson Middle School would become a kindergarten-to-sixth-grade facility. The semi-private Gilbert School would become responsible for educating grades seven through 12.
Aside from the fact that lumping two more grades into the town’s high school would demoralize students, the plan would have legal implications. The Gilbert School was explicitly established for the education of the town’s high school students, not younger grades. High schools are separate institutions for a reason, as they mark a period of transition for freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors.
There is no question that Winsted is in difficult fiscal straits, with the town having laid off four teachers and several paraprofessionals this week, while eliminating various programs and supplies. But lumping students together into schools that are not equipped to handle the transition sounds like adding fuel to the fire.
One of the remaining things Winsted parents can still take pride in is the fact that their children are safely transported to their respective schools and cared for in these facilities by elementary, middle and high-school teachers. Students make natural transitions from the kindergarten-to-fifth-grade system to Pearson’s six-to-eight program and finally to high school. Taking that away will cause more chaos in the system and probably lead to greater failures down the road.
