SHERMAN — Town resident Joanna Wozniak-Brown faced education board members last week with strong emotion in her voice.
She referenced repairs needed at the Sherman school and said she hopes the district can develop the best plan "to make the school as safe as we possibly can," she said, as her voice broke.
Additionally, a sixth-grader called into the meeting virtually and also became emotional, saying, "I really do not want to see the school go. I'm very good friends with a lot of people in the school."
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Many other impassioned voices were heard at the April 5 meeting, which was held in response to recent conversations the school might have to close due to up to $50 million in repairs needed.
The Sherman School, which has about 270 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, is the only school in the town, and if it were to close, Sherman would be the only town in the state without a school, according to a state Department of Education spokesperson.
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At the 90-minute meeting which had about 90 people in attendance both in person or watching virtually, school administration explored several options for students and also discussed costs involved to repair the school.
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After the meeting, Sherman Schools Superintendent Pat Cosentino said "none of the town leaders or the administration are in favor of closing the Sherman School or tuitioning out our students but we understand our responsibility to do our due diligence to cost out all of the options."
To 'reassure' the community
Aside from over half a dozen parents who spoke in favor of saving the school at the meeting, Sherman education board chairman Matt Vogt said the board received a handful of emails against closing the school.
He added the board didn't get any letters supporting redistricting students, which could involve sending students to Region 12, which serves students from Roxbury, Bridgewater and Washington.
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Vogt said he wants to "reassure" the community that town officials don't want to redistrict.
"There's concern that this has to do with fear mongering but I'll say for myself, personally, I am in no way, shape or form in support of anything like regionalization or changing the school structure as it is," he said.
"That would not change, even if the money was there to save quite a bit of it out of our budget," he added.
Board members, however, are still crunching the numbers to examine all the costs involved with redistricting. Once those costs are solidified, they'll be presented at a future education board meeting.
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Vogt said the costs involved with redistricting are not just ones that can be calculated into the district's budget, such as busing costs.
"It also has to do with the cost to the town in terms of home values ... but also ... our experience, the makeup of our town, who's in it, what the town has to offer them," he told Hearst Connecticut Media.
"A budget advantage or a cost advantage to taxpayers has to be pretty significant to offset a lot of those things. And frankly, it's just not there," he added.
The repair process
School administration is looking into different repair options and it's too early right now, Vogt said, to know exact costs for each one.
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"It has to do with the total square footage of the building itself as a direct impact on the cost," he said. "What we're doing now is putting together a few different layouts essentially of the building."
The district is working with architects Antinozzi Associates PC in Bridgeport on possible options, which range from "bare bones" to fixing everything that's needed, he said.
All work needed at the school is "intertwined," he said. "That's why we end up with this large full-scale project at the end of every conversation because no matter how hard you try, there's no really efficient way to do it by just selecting a few things to do at once."
Alternative options
Aside from redistricting to Region 12, alternatives for students were addressed at the meeting including regionalization or a process called "tuitioning out," which is what the district does with its high schoolers.
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Vogt said Sherman could make the school from kindergarten to fifth grade. Students in grades 6 to 12 would be tuitioned out to Shepaug Valley School in Washington.
Vogt said, however, there are concerns with that option.
"There's a state statute that allows us to tuition out our high schoolers. There is no state statute specifically for middle school students," he said. "If we were to try to do something like that, it would be unprecedented. (It's) not necessarily impossible but there's certainly a question brought up by the Board of Ed counsel as to whether or not it's even legal to do just that."
A spokesman for the state Board of Education could not be reached for comment on Friday.
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Another option is regionalization, which involves a legal agreement contracted in partnership with another town, to share resources. It involves a very long, legal process, town approval by the state Board of Education and can take many years to accomplish.
Next steps
By the end of April, cost estimations for the main three or four idea plans for repairing the school will be available to the public, Vogt said.
The school's building committee and other town officials will then can weigh the pros and cons of each option and then get feedback from the community.
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Ultimately, the option that is selected would go to a referendum.