[S]tate education officials have approved a merger plan in Windsor County that preserves an existing school at the cost of giving up school choice.
Districts in Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union have struggled for two years to come up with a way to comply with Act 46, the merger law, and continue to work together. In the end, two of the four districts have proposed merging, while two others are pitching an alternative governance structure.
School choice has been the issue preventing the towns from staying together.
The State Board of Education said yes Wednesday to Windsor and West Windsor’s plan to merge districts. The proposal would eliminate middle and high school choice in West Windsor and send students in those grades to Windsor, while keeping them at Albert Bridge School for the early grades. The cost of tuitioning and a rise in special education have raised taxes while forcing West Windsor to cut into and “cannibalize” its elementary school budget.
The final decision is up to the voters, but the proposal has support in the community, according to Elizabeth Burrows, the board chair for West Windsor.
“For us, Act 46 gives our town a choice between keeping a school or keeping school choice. We can’t keep both,” she said, adding that keeping the school was by far the most important thing to the town.
Windsor Southeast jumped on the Act 46 bandwagon as soon as the law passed in 2015, hoping to be in line for an accelerated merger and the tax breaks that go with it. But Hartland, Weathersfield, Windsor and West Windsor were stymied when the education board announced that newly merged districts could not both operate schools and tuition students in the same grades.
Windsor operates all grades from pre-kindergarten through 12. The other districts operate elementary schools, then pay tuition for higher grades — beginning with seventh in West Windsor, and ninth in Hartland and Weathersfield.
The study committee considered seven kinds of merger and governance models, but in the end, geography and school choice prevented the districts from staying together in the same way they operate now.
But Peter Clark, the facilitator for the study group, said people have grappled with this issue and have started to think differently and to think about what is best for the kids. Still, he said, “the issue of what to do about choice and unifying districts is a double-edged sword,” because there are winners and losers on both sides of it.
Windsor and West Windsor representatives said unifying will save some money, lower taxes in West Windsor even without incentives — which are no longer available — and allow them to increase programs and opportunities for students.
“We are so close together, and there are endless opportunities we can have with all of our school structures,” said Amy McMullen, board chair at Windsor. “You just have to have an open mind. We won’t be seeing a tax savings in Windsor. However, we strongly believe in the opening of opportunity for all of our students.”
