Will YOU Be Going to New Canaan High School Next Year?
Neirad Gets the Facts on What the State's Efforts at School Regionalization Could Mean to You
May 23, 2019
Recently there were three separate bills on the Senate’s floor that looked at the idea of “regionalizing” school districts of smaller suburban (as well as rural) towns like Darien, New Canaan, Wilton, etc. I talked to Town of Darien Selectman Mr. Jamie Stevenson about these proposed bills as well as the impact they would have on a student’s life.
Here are some thing I learned about regionalization.
Why are bills like these being proposed?
The state government is currently in the midst of an economic crisis. Therefore, legislators are looking for a way to save money. One way to save money would be regionalization because that means there are fewer salaries for the government to pay. The government is also looking at many other ways to save money. However, if implemented, regionalization of school systems would not just save lots of money, but also barely affects the life of students and the success rating of these schools.
What are these bills?
- Senate Bill #457 proposed by Senator Bob Duff
According to Sandra Diamond Fox’s article called “Duff Addresses School Regionalization Bill at Norwalk Talk” in The Darien Times published on February 2, 2019, Senator Duff’s bill would “require” school districts with a student population of 2,000 or less to regionalize. This would not effect Darien because the student population of Darien is around 5,000. Over 50% of school districts in Connecticut fit into this category and the state government spends lots of money to keep these schools up and running. This bill would only affect the administration in the schools – the bill mandates that smaller districts band together and have one public schools office that oversees them all. Duff predicts that this bill would not only “reduce costs”, but also “increase student outcomes”. Duff’s bill was shot down in March 2019.
- Senate Bill #738 proposed by Senator Martin Looney
Senat
or Looney’s bill would force towns with an overall population of less than 40,000 to consolidate with neighboring towns. This would impact Darien due to its 21,000 person population, as well as 145 other towns in Connecticut, according to “Lamont’s School Regionalization Plan Alarms Parents” by Kathleen Megan, published by The Connecticut Post on March 1, 2019. In fact, there are only 12 towns who this bill would not affect if passed. Due to a large number of people this would affect, there was lots of resistance from all across Connecticut, leading to eventual died in the Senate as well.
- Senate Bill #874 proposed by Governor Ted Lamont
Governor Lamont’s bill would “encourage” small districts-which he defines as having “fewer than 10,000 residents, fewer than 2,000 students or with only one or two elementary schools” to consolidate using incentives. Incentives would mean saying that if a school district were to have its own superintendent instead of sharing one with another school district, that district will no longer be funded for certain activities such as school construction reimbursement. Looking at those numbers, you may not think this would effect Darien; however, those numbers were only Governor Lamont’s definition of a small school. The restrictions could easily be changed in the fine print later. If implemented, this bill would effect Darien because of the town’s plans to rebuild Ox Ridge Elementary School in the near future. One thing to note is Lamont’s use of the word “encourages”, which was added after much backlash from Connecticut residents. This means that regionalization would not be forced, but it would be strongly encouraged if the school wants funding from the state government because this bill would “give priority” to schools sharing superintendents, bonding to bigger schools, and pooling together resources. This bill was actually passed by the Senate and is currently in the House of Representatives floor, according to Connecticut Mirror’s “Education Committee approves Lamont’s Watered-Down Regionalization Bill” by Kathleen Megan on March 29, 2019.
Would these bills change anything in a student’s daily life?
NO! The changes that would be made with these bills would NOT mean any DHS students going to New Canaan High School next year. Most of the changes would be administrative consolidation, meaning that district employess like the superintendent or the IT director would be shared between the two schools. Jamie Stevenson, Darien’s First Selectmen, even told me that there would be “ no visible impact to the student body or families — First Selectman, Jamie Stevenson
Who opposes these bills? Why?
There is one main group who is against these bills and they are a group called “Hands Off Our Schools”. According to the Hands Off Our Schools’ mission statement, posted on its website, it is a statewide organization who supports “voluntary” regionalization and opposes “forced” regionalization as well as “coerced” regionalization. Coerced regionalization is the idea that the state government does not force schools to consolidate; however, there are negative consequences such as less funding for those who do not consolidate. This would put school districts into awkward situations, where they may choose to consolidate even though they don’t want to. This organization believes that forced or coerced regionalization will ruin better performing schools and fail to improve underperforming schools.
Darienites specifically do not support this bill because of the impacts it could have on the school district and the real estate market. Many people move to Darien because of the distinguished schools we have. There is a fear that although there would be no actual change to a student’s daily life, regionalization will take away from the education that a student may have. In addition, even the threat of these bills has caused the real estate market to struggle. Potential buyers do not want to buy homes in Darien because they don’t know how good the school system will be in a few years if regionalization is implemented. If these bills were carried out, there is a chance that the prices of houses in Darien would fall, negatively affecting many Darienites.
What’s next?
One of these bills is still in the House of Representatives, which means that that regionalization is still possible. It is important to stay involved to let the House know the public’s opinion. There are many ways for these bills to get passed, the Education committee, the Financial Committee, and the state budget; which means that the public needs to be involved every step of the way in supporting or opposing the bill.
One thing to keep in mind is that the intention of these bills is to save money because the state’s economy is in crisis. The economic situation probably isn’t going away in the near future which means that bills similar to the regionalization ones may come up in the near future. Although many dislike regionalization, reducing the costs of education would largely help the government in their budget. The main intention of saving money may not have been reached by Senator Duff, Senator Looney, and Governor Lamont; however, these bills did do one thing they intended: open the eyes of the public to the financial situation around us. It let us know the reality of the situation and that money will have to be saved one way or another and though regionalization wasn’t the resolution, and the state needs to come up with something soon.