Newfound struggling to accommodate preschool enrollment

BRISTOL — The Newfound Area School Board has asked the superintendent’s office to look into diverting money in the budget to find space to accommodate another preschool classroom in the face of increased enrollment. Four students currently in the 3-year-old class are on a waiting list for the 4-year-old class next year.

Groton board member William Jolly was adamant the board had to act immediately to address what he described as discrimination against the four students displaced by incoming special needs students who by law have to be accommodated. At times shouting obscenities in his impassioned appeal to persuade reluctant board members to go along with him, Jolly said he was willing to stay as late as it took to solve the problem during the meeting on June 10.

Nancy Coffin, district student services administrator, explained Newfound already has trouble filling the para-educator positions the law requires for special needs students. While the district was able to fill several of those positions, there still are 14 unfilled para jobs.

Board member Joe Maloney of Bristol, who is a former case manager for preschool special education, said the numbers are getting high enough to justify two classrooms.

Coffin agreed, saying there have been discussions about opening preschool programs in each elementary school, rather than operating a single district preschool, but there has to be space to accommodate those classrooms.

The district also is facing budgetary problems for the coming year, despite voters having added more than $616,000 to the proposed 2024-25 operating budget.

Business Administrator Robin Reinhold said there is no way the district would be able to afford the additional costs associated with another preschool classroom, but said she would look through the budget for cost savings if the school board asked her to do so.

Jolly argued classroom size recommendations are only suggestions and could be increased, while also saying budget items are “fungible,” or able to be moved between accounts. He cited the controversy over subscriptions to The New York Times and Wall Street Journal that cost more than $4,000, and which he said served only teachers because students did not read those newspapers. Jolly said there is likely other spending that could be eliminated. He also said he did not believe that accommodating four students would require a whole new classroom.

Board Chair Melissa Suckling of Danbury disputed his assertion about classroom sizes, saying that a few students with wheelchairs could make classroom space tight.

Next year's projections are for 15 students in that classroom which, with the four placed on the waiting list, would bring the number to 19. Then there is the possibility of additional special needs students who would have to be accommodated.

There already was a large number of students on the waiting list to get into preschool. The four displaced students were selected by lottery and were placed at the top of that waiting list.

The school board has scheduled no meeting in July, but Jolly asked for them to hold a special meeting to address the preschool needs once they have further information from the superintendent’s office. The board eventually agreed, and Interim Superintendent Steve Nilhas said he would present several options for their consideration at the special meeting which was scheduled for June 26. 

Maloney asked they cancel the meeting if Nilhas is unable to find the money or space for the classroom, saying it would make the meeting unnecessary.

An issue that also has alarmed parents is the school board’s decision to require Alexandra students who attend kindergarten at the Bridgwater-Hebron Village School to leave a year early and attend classes within the four towns that will remain part of School Administrative Unit 4. Bridgewater, Hebron, and Groton will leave SAU 4 and operate their own special-needs school district beginning in 2025.

As Vice Chair Kimberly Bliss of Alexandria explained the decision, “Instead of trying to come up with a phase-out plan in a potential tuition agreement, we are planning to kind of redistrict them sooner rather than later into SAU 4 because they are one of the four remaining towns, they are part of SAU 4, and we’ll be keeping them into SAU 4, and being cost-effective.”

As the school district moves forward with planning for the split, the school board reaffirmed its previous decision to deny administrative services to the new district. The Bridgewater-Hebron-Groton Steering Committee had offered to pay for any additional staffing and workload for the SAU 4 central office if they would also handle those services. In denying the request, the school board cited the facts that there will be a new superintendent, business manager, and curriculum coordinator as of July 1, and the current office already is crowded without adding more staff members.

Moving forward, the board disbanded its “HB 349 Committee” — named after the legislation allowing the towns to withdraw — and reconstituted it as the “Restructuring Committee” to “plan and execute a restructuring plan” for the remaining towns in the Newfound Area School District, negotiate a tuition agreement for students wishing to continue attending Newfound schools and handle other issues related to the change. That includes scheduling a special school district meeting to reallocate the seven school board seats among the four towns, as well as to determine the makeup of the district budget committee.

They also will need to determine the custody and distribution of district equipment and the money in capital reserve and trust funds with the three departing towns.

With one year remaining as a seven-town district, the school board approved a one-year extension of its lease with the Bridgewater-Hebron Village School. Bridgewater and Hebron built and maintain the school, leasing it to Newfound for $1 a year so SAU 4 can handle the curriculum and staffing.

Current school board and budget committee members from the departing towns will not be able to discuss or vote on budgets and other matters pertaining to the 2025-26 academic year. Those towns will have their own school board and budget for operations after July 1, 2025.