Superintendent Delivers 'State of the District':Calls for Purchase Of The Gilbert School

WINSTED — Winchester Superintendent of Schools Blaise Salerno delivered the towns’ first "State of the District" address at Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, citing progress made in the school system since he started last August and proposing an idea to purchase the semi-private Gilbert School.

"I was not going to make this public until I had made an approach to the leadership of the Gilbert School," Salerno said. "Unfortunately, the ideas to be presented now were part of a local television program. It is imperative that it be shared with the public at this time."

Salerno said negotiations with Gilbert for a new 10-year contract have been "trying for both sides" and noted that a mediator had been enlisted to assist with the negotiations. The central issue, the superintendent said, involves providing quality education to students at a reasonable price.

"As we were meeting to discuss strategies and options that were available to us, I suggested to the board that we make a bone fide offer to the trustees to buy the Gilbert School," Salerno announced to a hushed audience.

"My reasons are clear. If nothing happens to stem the current conditions, I expect that our student population will not only continue to drop, but that we will continue to become a more diverse community with larger numbers of minorities, challenged students, and children from families with limited means. Based upon our estimates, we expect that there will be fewer that 400 students attending Gilbert next year."

Salerno said the current price for educating the town’s high school students is more than $7 million and that the cost of educating students at Gilbert will continue to rise, even as the student population dwindles. "There is little or no economy of scale," he said.

"If the town and the board were to be allowed to purchase the building at, for example, $20 million, and the cost was financed over a 15-year period, less state aid at 73 percent, our annual debt service cost, with a 4.2 percent interest rate, would be $547,221. I have no doubt that, because I am not bound by tradition, I could operate a high school that better meets the needs of all of our students for significantly less than the $7 million we are currently spending to educate our high school students."

Salerno added that the Gilbert Trust, which was originally designed to provide 100 percent of the funding for Winsted high-school students, could contribute money earned from the sale of the building to local education inititatives.

"If the trust invested that $20 million conservatively and earned 5-percent interest, they would have $1 million of income to invest in philanthropic and cultural resources for the town each year without touching the principle," the superintendent said. "They would also be in a position to contribute dollars to assure that upper-level, low-demand courses and state-of-the-art facilities and equipment could be given to the school if they still wished to maintain the historic traditions. If the selling price were higher, the interest income would be higher and the level of philanthropic endowment could be higher. Mr. Gilbert and his trust would enhance their role as benefactors to the town and its residents."

Salerno added that, according to state estimates, the town’s K-8 system will have only 800 to 850 students by 2017, and that the town may have to "abandon" its three public schools in favor of building a new facility for the entire K-8 system. "We are looking at costs of repairs and compliance in three buildings that are estimated to cost $20 million," he said. "We must also have places to house students while this reconstruction takes place. It may be less expensive to consider the abandonment of existing buildings and the construction of a building that could meet the needs of our K-8 programs."Accomplishments

On a more positive note, Salerno said, passing the town budget during the late summer last year allowed the school system to fill needed positions and he said the current budget "is in good shape." A new fuel tank at Pearson Middle School is in the works and other improvements have been completed in the public schools.

Salerno said that members of the Winchester Board of Education deserve credit for putting children first and that the board spends the majority of its time focused on children and learning. "We have a ways to go but they must be congratulated for their efforts," he said. "Our strength is our dedicated staff in both instructional and non-instructional positions."

Salerno noted that Pearson Middle School reinstituted a world language program last year with the addition of Spanish classes, and that new reading and math programs have been instituted, with a new science program on the way. Library and computer resources need to be upgraded, he said, adding that the school system should hire at least one certified librarian.

"We are definitely on the move," Salerno said. "I continue to see us become a lighthouse school district in Northwestern Connecticut. As more people come to believe this possibility, I know that it will happen."

Lastly, Salerno highlighted the school system’s efforts at improving communications with the community. "Our televised meetings, the formation of an ad hoc Special Education Committee, the ‘All Our Children First’ television show, the creation of a Citizen’s Budget Advisory Committee, the various letters to parents and citizens and our responses to those concerns are having a very positive effect," he said. "When my office receives a telephone call from our local press, they receive a timely response and honest and open responses to the question posed or requests made."

Salerno said that spirit of openness and transparency ultimately has a positive effect. "We are moving in the right direction," he said. "I can truly say that I am happy to be a part of that movement and I look forward to providing effective and personal leadership to our schools."