Controversial Norwich school plan off the table

Board of Education elects to pursue savings elsewhere

Norwich — The controversial proposal announced earlier this month to restructure six city elementary schools to save an estimated $800,000 next school year is off the table, as eight of the nine Board of Education members instructed school officials late Tuesday to try to find other savings.

The board’s Budget Expenditure Committee met Tuesday to discuss the budget and the controversial move to restructure six elementary schools by grade level rather than geographic area. The move would have created three kindergarten through second-grade schools and three third- through fifthgrade schools.

Superintendent Abby Dolliver said after a lengthy discussion of the restructuring and other budget issues — including the numerous grants used to fund staffing and programs — board members questioned whether the $800,000 in savings would be worth the public outcry by parents and teachers expressed at last week’s budget public hearing.

Dolliver said after the long discussion, she asked board members present if they wanted her to “take it out of the book,” and although no votes were taken, Dolliver said the consensus was unanimous that the $800,000 in projected savings was insignificant when the board faces a potential $6 million budget increase over this year’s $76.1 million budget total. Only board member Aaron “Al” Daniels did not attend the committee meeting.

“I know that there has been a lot of discussion and worry about a possible district reorganization as part of meeting our budgetary obligations,” Dolliver wrote in an email to staff late Tuesday. “Tonight, after a long discussion, the Board of Education decided to take the reorganization idea off the table. Together we will all have to continue to find ways to meet our obligations.”

Dolliver said board members suggested asking the staff for wage freezes or furlough days in the coming year, but Dolliver said those measures also would not bring significant cuts to the budget increase. She said she has contacted the state Department of Education for guidance.

The next Budget Expenditure Committee meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at Kelly Middle School. The board is scheduled to adopt a proposed budget on March 13 to be submitted to City Manager John Salomone. City Council members already have said a $6 million, or 8 percent, proposed increase would not be acceptable.

That increase included the school restructuring plan, so the increase without the plan would be close to $7 million, putting the budget total over $83 million.

The controversial restructuring plan was unveiled at the Feb. 8 Budget Expenditure Committee meeting and drew immediate criticism. The plan called for pairing six schools — Wequonnoc with Veterans’ Memorial, Uncas with Thomas Mahan and John B. Stanton with Samuel Huntington — and dividing students by grade level, with lower grades attending the single-story schools. Only the Moriarty Environmental Sciences Magnet School would have been left untouched with kindergarten through fifth-grade.

Parents and teachers objected to the restructuring in emotional testimony at the board’s Feb. 13 meeting and again at the Feb. 21 budget public hearing, complaining about splitting siblings among schools, long bus rides, disrupting parents’ schedules and lack of educational value.