BRISTOL SCHOOLS Panel mulls outcome of closing building

A one-year contract between the school board and employees carries a wage freeze.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BRISTOLVILLE -- Members of the commission appointed to oversee Bristol school district finances expect to learn in April the costs and savings associated with closing Farmington Elementary School.
The school district is asking voters next week to approve a 7.9-mill, five-year additional levy that would generate about $560,000 annually. The fiscal commission was appointed late last year after the state auditor's office declared the district in fiscal emergency, citing a projected deficit.
"If the levy doesn't pass, there will have to be some tough decisions made," said Peg Betts, commission chairwoman.
One of those possibilities discussed at a commission meeting Thursday is closing the 290-pupil kindergarten-through-third-grade elementary school. Betts stressed that no decision has been made.
Asked for report
Commission members asked Superintendent Rocco Nero and Katherine Sines, treasurer, to prepare a report of the costs and savings of closing the building and present it at the commission's April 22 meeting.
"We need to look at the community implications, both short-term and long-term," Betts said.
If the district closes the school for example, some pupils, such as the Amish children, could choose a charter or community school or home-schooling, she said.
If the district loses those pupils, it would also lose the state funding that goes along with them.
Nero pointed out that the teachers in the elementary-school building would have to be moved along with the pupils to the district's middle- school and high-school buildings. The positions of some of the non-teaching staff that work in the elementary-school building are slated for elimination at the end of the school year to cut costs.
Nero said the school board and the Bristol Association of School Employees, the union representing teachers and classified school employees, reached a one-year contract that carries a wage freeze. The deal was struck because of the district's financial difficulties.
The contract runs from July 1 to July 1, 2005. The union includes about 100 employees.
Betts said the commission also must consider the costs to "mothball" a building. The grounds still must be maintained, she said.
Dennis Beach, commission member, said his biggest concern with closing a building is its effect on the community. It may cause home values to decrease, he said.
"I think it's expensive to close a building," Betts said. "It's expensive emotionally for the kids that have to move and we have to consider the additional expense if it needs to be reopened."
About 200 pupils attend the middle school, with about 380 enrolled in the high school. Nero said there are six empty classrooms in the two buildings.
"We could accommodate them [elementary pupils], but we would have traveling teachers, sharing of rooms," the superintendent said. "It would be very crowded."