Community gives mixed input on Newfound school consolidation

BRISTOL — About 60 residents of the towns comprising the Newfound Area School District attended a listening session Jan. 6, intended to allow people to offer their “perspectives, concerns, and ideas” about the possible school consolidation effort in the face of declining student enrollment. The discussion veered into another realm when Superintendent Paul Hoiriis revealed schools are facing $2.5 million in budget cuts for the coming year in order to remain within the district’s tax cap.

A resident of New Hampton asked about the impact on personnel and educational programs if the district has to cut $2.6 million from the budget, and then reduce the staff even more in future years if outlying elementary schools close. Others asked whether savings from the closings would be offset by the building additions to the middle and high school under consideration.

“Almost every year since we’ve had the tax cap, and I’ve worked in this district, we’ve looked at cutting something, and we’re hoping consolidation — without supporting five buildings — can help us make sure we’re not cutting teachers that will teach a key program,” Hoiriis said.

“We’re not cutting athletics. We’re not cutting co-curriculars, all the things that make our students have the best education and the best opportunities possible.”

The Newfound Area School District Budget Committee will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 12, ahead of the regular school board meeting, to lay out the details of the proposed 2026-27 budget.

Newfound schools serve Alexandria, Bristol, Danbury and New Hampton.

A building committee formed more than three years ago to look into consolidating the elementary schools into a single district-wide elementary school. They proposed building it on the high school campus, but troublesome terrain and other factors sent the cost soaring. Meanwhile, three of the seven member towns at the time moved forward with an initiative to break off from Newfound. Facing that uncertainty, the committee suspended its work.

After Bridgewater, Hebron and Groton did leave to form the Pasquaney School District, the building committee had to rethink its position.

Committee member Dave Suckling said they used Survey Monkey to gauge public sentiment. “We compared the results, and we completely, completely flipped on what we were thinking from where we first conceptualized we were going with this,” he said. “We are listening to you, guys.”

Brad Prescott and Matt Giffin of Banwell Architects were recording responses during the listening session. Banwell has been involved in assessing proposals by the building committee over the years, and has been tasked with weighing the advantages of maintaining the current configuration against those of consolidating. Much of the discussion Tuesday night centered on those pros and cons.

As proposed, the middle school would be reconfigured to serve students in kindergarten through sixth grade, and an addition to the high school would accommodate grades 7 and 8.

Dana Torsey of New Hampton questioned the need for an addition, saying the high school had 505 students in 1998, and the middle school had 575. Today, the high school has 350 students, and the middle school, 300. There are 380 students in K-8, he said.

“So there’s quite a bit of capacity.”

While others argue it would be a mistake to have seventh and eighth graders in the same building as high schoolers, Torsey disagreed.

“They’re riding on the same bus to school every day; they’re going to be in the same cafeteria, the same gyms, the same locker rooms, the same hallways.

"These kids aren’t separated in the rest of the world; I don’t understand why we’d have to build a separate space for that.”

Torsey also said Newfound taxpayers are subsidizing tuition students from Hill, because their rate is around $17,000 per student, while it costs $21,000 per student in the district. Hill’s taxpayers actually pay more than the basic tuition fee, because they are responsible for bus transportation and special education services, among other costs.

Several parents and teachers disagreed with integrating seventh  and eighth graders with high schoolers, and even objected to having lower elementary students in the same building with sixth graders, citing bullying, safety, and differences in maturity that would expose the younger students to things for which they are not ready. Long bus trips from outlying areas also was an area of concern.

Most of all, those in attendance questioned the educational value of combining classes in centralized facilities. Hoiriis and others in education argued that, while small schools provide close relationships with the community, having a central location allows the district to offer an equitable education for all students — something difficult when educators are spread across multiple towns.

Due to the concerns, some suggested phasing in changes to reduce costs and evaluate a long the way.

“There’s not a single question here that we haven’t asked amongst ourselves. I really appreciate you guys coming out and asking questions, and I think this auditorium should have been packed. I’m just going to say that, because I think this community is bigger than the 60 people here, and the people that aren’t here are going to be the ones that aren’t going to be happy, and we want to hear it. We want to represent you guys, all of you guys, this whole community, and we want this to work. And when we go to vote on this," Suckling said, "we want you guys to pass this as a landslide, because it was a community decision.”