Much of the discussion at a June 1 meeting of the Chester, Deep River, and Essex boards of finance and selectmen and representatives from the boards of education orbited around trying to come up with a way to create a school regionalization inter-municipal agreement with which Chester would be on board.

The three towns are considering replacing the current system of five boards of education (one for the middle and high schools, one for each town’s elementary school, and one for the administration of all the above) with a single board composed of members of each town.

Prior to the meeting, the Chester boards of selectmen and finance had drafted a one-page letter detailing their reservation about entering into an inter-municipal agreement. The letter began, “We, the Chester Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance, do not support the inter-municipal agreement as we believe strongly that it has a disproportionately negative financial impact on Chester. The two boards unanimously agreed not to approve or recommend the proposed agreement to go to a town meeting or referendum in Chester.

“Additionally, the Chester Board of Finance, after reviewing the proposed K-12 Regionalization Plan, believes many details need to be resolved before we could endorse the plan. Consequently we do not support the regionalization of the elementary schools as described in the May 12, 2015 plan. We believe the risks outweigh the projected financial and administrative benefits.”

Essex Board of Education Chair Lon Seidman explained that new legislation was in the works that would give more monetary control to individual towns.

“In the past, the state has said there is only one way to divvy up the money, but new legislation will give us more options,” said Seidman. “This new legislation may allow towns, within a region, to define their own funding methodology because it has some very opened-ended language.”

He added, “I am hopeful all three towns can come to an agreement so we can regionalize and reduce the layers of bureaucracy,” said Seidman.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Levy shared an anecdote that illustrated how regionalization would benefit the schools, the students, the teachers, the boards of education, and the volunteers who sit on those boards and the towns.

“Today I interviewed a teacher I hired two years ago. She got laid off from one elementary school and had to apply for the same job in another elementary school. She had to go through the entire process again—résumé, lesson plan, paper work, [and] interview—just to get hired again for the same position. If we were regionalized, that would not happen. That is just one example,” explained Levy.

“This is so mired down in control and money that the actual idea of regionalization has been lost,” said Levy. “All the schools are currently doing well because we have all played well together in the sandbox. We have excellent staff, excellent professional development, and excellent schools, but we could be better. We have pretended we are regionalized, but we are not. To make any decisions right now we have 33 board members. That is insanity.”

“What we are hearing here tonight is much clearer and more positive than the information we were provided in the past,” said Chester First Selectman Ed Meehan.

However, members of the Chester Board of Finance (BOF) were still hesitant about getting on board.

“We are not saying, ‘No’ to this; we just want things to slow down. We want to take our time, do the due diligence, and drill down into the information so we understand it all,” said Chester BOF member Lori Ann Clymas. “We all need to get our ducks in a row before any of this goes to a vote.”

“The changes Chester has asked for in the draft regionalization plan have been responded to. I think we can do this if we slow down, particularly in light of the new legislation,” said Meehan.

Although the meeting ended with no resolution, the plan now is to give Region 4 Business Manager Garth Sawyer some time to figure out how to work with the new options available due to new legislation and get all the boards together again for another informational meeting soon. This means, for the time being, things are on hold in regard to both regionalization and the inter-municipal agreement.