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Date Posted: Monday, June 14, 07:44:46am
Author: JG
Subject: Winsted may jettison Gilbert -- Republican American Jun 14

Winsted may jettison Gilbert; other high school options examined

BY KURT MOFFETT REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WINSTED -- The Board of Education that oversees the kindergarten-through-grade-eight system is examining its options for sending high school students somewhere else besides The Gilbert School.

A committee of three school board members has contacted five school administrators from area districts about whether they could send local high school students there. The examination comes while K-8 and Gilbert representatives struggle to reach a new contract to replace the one that expires June 30. Both sides are grappling with declining enrollments and increasing costs.

Thus far, the committee has found Torrington High School to be the most viable option. Committee member Richard S. Dutton reported last week that Torrington High School has the capacity for 1,600 students and currently enrolls 1,125. The estimated tuition per regular education student is $11,000, significantly lower than the $15,169 the K-8 system pays Gilbert, the town's semi-private high school.

Dutton said Torrington Superintendent of Schools Christopher G. Leone told the committee that his district would be open to Winsted designating Torrington High as its primary high school. Dutton said Torrington High has a slightly better academic performance record than Gilbert, based on dropout and graduation rates and SAT scores recorded in the schools' respective 2007-08 strategic school profiles.

"Isn't it wonderful to have this option?" Dutton said of Torrington High.

Leone called the conversations thus far "very preliminary," with many details yet to be worked out. Topics yet to be covered include whether Winsted students would be fully integrated into Torrington High School, allowing Winsted students to play on Torrington sports teams and clubs, or whether Torrington would set up a high school within a high school, with Winsted students playing on their own teams.

Leone said the conversation to date has focused on a potential move in the fall of 2011. He said it is too soon to say what renovations or modifications Torrington High might require to accommodate 350 or more Winsted students.

"You have to look at many different factors," Leone said. "I don't want to speculate."

Another option is Region 7 Northwestern Regional High School, located in town near the Barkhamsted line. Dutton reported that Region 7 has the space and the "willingness" to take up to 40 freshmen, though Region 7 Superintendent Clinton A. Montgomery disagrees with that statement.

"We're very sensitive about not wanting to do anything that would harm Gilbert," Montgomery said, adding that the Region 7 school board would rather stay out of the politics and financial problems that face the K-8 and Gilbert school systems and see them resolve their issues on their own.

Region 7, a grades 7-12 district for the towns of Barkhamsted, New Hartford, Colebrook and Norfolk, has 1,166 students, with about two-thirds of them, or close to 800, at the high school. Montgomery said enrollment was expected to decline sharply, but instead has stabilized, with families moving into the area and the plan to bring in Chinese students.

Montgomery said Region 7 has the capacity to enroll additional students, but any decision to bring in Winsted students would ultimately be made by the school board. At this point, no plan has been presented to the board.

Dutton wrote in his report that the tuition charged this year to students from Hartland and other towns is $13,400, which is also less than what Gilbert charges. He also noted that Region 7 has an excellent educational reputation, as measured in its 2007-08 strategic school profile.

To read the complete story see Monday's Republican-American or our electronic edition at http://republicanamerican.ct.newsmemory.com.

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