Updated, 2:07 p.m.: Additional information; 8:33 a.m.: Copy edits
NORWALK, Conn. – A misprint on proposed state legislation has led to misunderstandings, as Norwalk Board of Education members and others panned a proposal to merge the Norwalk school district with Wilton’s.
State Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven) submitted a bill to create a Commission to develop a plan for regional consolidation of school districts, realigning districts that have less than 40,000 students along probate district lines. State Senate Democrats spokesman Kevin Coughlin said Tuesday that there was a mistake in the Congressional Office, the bill is supposed to apply to municipalities with fewer than 40,000 residents.
State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff’s proposal to merge districts that have fewer than 2,000 students may have merit, Norwalk BoE Chairman Mike Barbis said, but more details are needed.
“{Looney’s} bill seems a bit out of left field … where did the 40,000 student cut of come from … there are no school districts even near that size …,” Barbis said in a Monday email. He provided these statistics on school district enrollment from the state Department of Education website:
- New Haven 21,518
- Bridgeport 20,896
- Hartford 20,142
- Waterbury 19,007
- Stamford 15,931
- Norwalk 11,573
- Danbury 11,483
- Fairfield 9,976
- Wilton 4,050
“This reminds me of the Uniform School Calendar – legislation passed in 2013/14 which forced public schools to have the same regional calendar – in the name of ‘saving money’ …. This regional calendar was a complete failure and has since been disbanded …. Merging Wilton and Norwalk would accomplish little on the money saving front and would be a logistical mess (and that’s putting it mildly!)” Barbis wrote.
“The bill proposes that a commission be created to develop a plan to consolidate districts under 40,000 students, similar to the probate regions,” Board member Julie Corbett wrote. “While there’s some information about a phased in approach for collective bargaining. There is no information on the effectiveness or quality of education to students, the governance or leadership for the newly created district, and no information about the possible costs and bus time increases that might be required to consolidate. While small districts often consolidate for economies of scale, usually district consolidation includes incentives to do so. But, the bill was just proposed and it’s too early to overreact. If the bill makes it to a hearing, that’s the time that we need to ask lots of questions. And, if the bill is approved, the commission will have a huge task to develop a plan for such consolidations that works for different contexts across the state.”
The CT Mirror posted a story on this topic Monday. NancyOnNorwalk has reprinted it here.
“The way schools are funded leads to inherent disparities between school districts,” Board member Sarah LeMieux wrote. “It’s great that legislators are looking at creative ways to resolve those disparities and level the playing field, but I think it’s important to foster community buy-in first. This seems unlikely to garner support, and I hope it doesn’t make it more difficult to work towards more regional equitability.”
Duff’s bill “may have more merit, be more realistic, and would provide students in super small districts with more opportunities,” Corbett wrote.
Half of Connecticut’s school districts have fewer than 2,000 students, Duff said to NancyOnNorwalk Monday.
“I believe that a lot of that money goes toward administration and the money does not go into classrooms,” Duff said. “With dollars being tight and resources stretched, we should put as many dollars as we can into school systems that are larger. To have 50 percent of our school districts in our state that have fewer than 2,000 students doesn’t really make a lot of sense from a resource standpoint and there’s data that does suggest that school districts that are so small don’t produce the desired results for student outcomes.”
“We’ll have to see” how this works its way through the legislature, Duff said. “Everything right now is an idea and a concept,” he added.
The General Assembly modified the Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) formula two years ago. Duff said he has been talking about consolidation since then, because resources are still stretched.
Barbis wrote:
“I know Governor Lamont believes that one place to save money in public education is with the tiny school districts that exist upstate – some of these districts are so small that the same person serves as Superintendent, Principal and Teacher … this is where consolidation would be logical. This would be a much more logical place to start than in Fairfield County with our large school districts.
“There are 172 school districts in CT – many are tiny. Places like Andover with 225 students, Union with 68, Sprague with 336, and Norfolk with 102. Norfolk has one elementary school with a 7 member Board of Education, a Superintendent and a Principal. They are spending $23,000/student even though they are in a rural lower cost part of CT. Logic would suggest this is where the focus should be!”
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