King Philip, Norfolk K-6 Schools Inching Closer

King Philip’s next superintendent of schools could be Norfolk’s, too.

The school committees that oversee Norfolk’s elementary schools and the regional grades-7-through-12 school district gave the green light this week to pursue a path that could lead to the two districts sharing a superintendent and an assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum.

The tortured phrasing of that last sentence is necessary because school officials are stressing it isn’t a done deal.

But here’s how it could work: The King Philip School Committee hopes to hire a new superintendent in April to replace Richard Robbat, the current interim superintendent, who formally retired as King Philip’s permanent superintendent June 30, 2009. Then the new King Philip superintendent could take over as Norfolk’s superintendent in July 2011, which is when current Norfolk Superintendent Don LeClerc’s current contract expires.

Both the proposal and the way it came about are causing a sensation among local government officials in the region. While sharing services is an old idea, the formal proposal to share a superintendent and assistant superintendent gathered momentum recently in what for local government passes as lightning speed: The Norfolk and King Philip school committees approved the idea of a Shared Services Subcommittee to explore ways to share services in the late fall; the subcommittee met once in mid-December and once December 30; and voila, a proposal.

The proposal has staunch critics who question both the timing and whether it’s a good idea under any circumstances.

But supporters say there is an unusual window of opportunity, given that the two superintendent contracts are coming to an end in the not-so-distant future. (The superintendents in Wrentham and Plainville have at least two years or more left on their contracts.)

Supporters of the plan are emphasizing that Norfolk and King Philip wouldn’t become one regional kindergarten-through- 12th-grade district under the plan, and that they would retain their own school committees.

The Norfolk School Committee could back out of the plan anytime before hiring the King Philip superintendent as Norfolk’s — if, for instance, the Norfolk School Committee doesn’t want whoever becomes King Philip’s superintendent.

Nor would the school districts necessarily save money. Neither district currently has an assistant superintendent or curriculum director, which would be part of the deal. And since an assistant superintendent would command a significant salary, and since a superintendent administering two school districts and answering to two school committees might demand more salary than a superintendent heading either Norfolk’s schools or KP’s, the total expenditure on school administrators might end being just about the same as it is now.

But each district would get something it doesn’t have now: a dedicated curriculum director.

“This particular model may not save you any money, but it potentially gives you a better bang for your buck,” said Pat Francomano, a member of the King Philip School Committee and Plainville resident, during the King Philip School Committee meeting this past Monday night.

Ross Gilleland, a Norfolk School Committee member who has spearheaded the proposal to consider sharing school administrators, noted that one of the challenges King Philip teachers encounter is that elementary school students coming into seventh grade from Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville don’t have the same educational experiences.

The elementary school districts don’t use the same curriculums for math and reading, for instance.

Having one professional educator in charge of both school districts could smooth the transition for Norfolk students from elementary school to King Philip Middle School, Gilleland said.

“When the children get t KP, there could be a bump. So we’re looking to smooth out those bumps …” Gilleland said during the King Philip School Committee meeting Monday night, which he attended.

Some would like to see the one-superintendent-fits-all model extended to Wrentham and Plainville.

“And I think Plainville and Wrentham would benefit as well if we were all operating under a single umbrella,” Francomano said.

“… And what better way to do a better job up here than to have some consistency across K to 12?” Francomano said. (The “up here” part referred to King Philip, which serves the higher grades.)

Maureen Howard, a Norfolk resident and chairman of the King Philip School Committee, agreed.

“I think it would make a seamless district at that point, and a good model,” Howard said.

Sharing a superintendent is an old idea that has never gone anywhere. Critics of the current system note that the three towns that make up the King Philip regional school district have among them four superintendents (one for each town’s elementary school district and one for King Philip) that each in a typical year commands a salary of roughly $130,000 a year. (King Philip isn’t paying Robbat a salary this fiscal year at Robbat’s choice.)

Robbat said this past Monday night that in 1999 the Wrentham superintendent suggested that King Philip and Wrentham share a superintendent. But it never happened.

Regionalizing the schools or sharing services in other ways has been formally studied in past years.

In November 2006 the Norfolk School Committee suggested to the school committees of Wrentham, Plainville, and King Philip that they jointly fund a study of whether to share services or even regionalize. Robbat showed interest in the idea at the time, but the other school committees showed no interest.

This new idea, supporters stress, is not only not a K-12 regional district, it isn’t even a socalled superintendency union of the two districts — the King Philip superintendent would simply have a separate contractual relationship to run Norfolk’s elementary schools. The new system would run roughly the way kings of England in the late Middle Ages claimed also to be king of Scotland — England and Scotland were in theory separate kingdoms that happened to have the same king.

“And there doesn’t appear to be any real significant downside …” Francomano said Monday night. “There does seem to be an opportunity there, to do a test run, to see how it goes.”

Skeptics find plenty of downside.

Would Wrentham and Plainville feel like second-class citizens at King Philip if KP and Norfolk are sharing a superintendent?

The King Philip School Committee voted 7-1 this past Monday night to move forward with the shared-administrators proposal. The one opponent, Kim Carr of Wrentham, said she has heard an image used of a “three-legged dog” to describe the proposal. (The legs would be KP-Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville.)

“I almost feel there’s not enough information to make a decision right now. It’s just coming too quickly,” Carr said.

From Norfolk’s perspective, would a King Philip superintendent be able to give the kind of attention to the new elementary school project that it needs? How much time and effort would the King Philip superintendent give to renegotiating the Norfolk elementary school teachers contract that expires in a year and a half?

How would a superintendent of both King Philip and Norfolk navigate through stormy budget seasons, when the elementary schools and the regional school district are almost always in a tug-of-war for money from the town?

Selectman Jim Lehan, board chairman, expressed some of these objections in a letter to the Norfolk School Committee this week, plus one more: Is the community behind the change?

“This may very well be the right decision, but such a major consideration requires community input. To move forward without involving the entire community-not just the school parents may very well undo your best efforts,” Lehan wrote.

Lehan asked the Norfolk School Committee to delay voting on the proposal, but the School Committee went ahead with the vote Wednesday night, supporting the idea on a 3-2 vote.

Supporters noted that King Philip officials have to finalize an ad seeking a new superintendent next week, and that they hope to include information in a brochure about the job describing how the superintendent of King Philip may also be called upon to take over Norfolk.

The timing argument drew the ire of John Olivieri, a member of the Norfolk School Committee.

“I’m appalled that we’re rushing, that we’re being driven by an ad,” Olivieri said during the committee meeting Wednesday night. “… This type of system if we rush it will fail because of people. We need people behind us.”

Beth Gilbert, chairman of the Norfolk School Committee, said she doesn’t see how the arrangement would benefit Norfolk and that it might even end up costing more money to both districts.

LeClerc, Norfolk’s superintendent, spoke passionately against the idea of sharing a superintendent with King Philip. The three elementary districts and King Philip could benefit from having a shared curriculum director to align common assessments for placement of students in seventh grade when they get to King Philip, he said.

But a joint superintendent of King Philip and Norfolk is bound to spend most of his attention on the high school, LeClerc said, which would give Norfolk short shrift.

“I think it will significantly tear at the core of Norfolk’s education …” LeClerc said. “Norfolk has spent years building up a curriculum that is solid and renowned around the state. … I think it’s wrong for Norfolk to go this route. I think Norfolk needs its own superintendent academically.”

But Linda Andrews, a supporter of the plan and member of the Norfolk School Committee, said sharing a superintendent would boost achievement at the elementary level.

“We’re going to raise excellence. Our kids are high-performing now. They’re going to be higher-performing,” Andrews said.

But Selectman Rob Garrity, who attended the Norfolk School Committee meeting this week, said the approach is wrongheaded. He said he’d eventually like to see one regional K-12 school district encompassing Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville, but that the piecemeal approach will inevitably be perceived as one district swallowing the other.

“I’m concerned from Norfolk’s point of view that it’s KP swallowing us,” Garrity said.

While Norfolk selectmen appear to disagree with the vote the majority of the Norfolk School Committee made this week, town officials are taking pains to avoid the open rupture that characterized relations between the two boards a few years ago, when each largely consisted of different members.

Examples abound. Lehan wrote, “I applaud your efforts to share services” before beginning his criticism of the process. Hathaway wrote: “Before I share my concerns, let me tell you that it is not my intent to Monday morning quarterback or to punish a good deed, but rather to share my concerns with the goal of success for all of us.”

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Editor’s Note: The Norfolk School Committee received letters from two Norfolk selectmen and the Norfolk town administrator before voting to proceed with exploring a proposal to share a superintendent and assistant superintendent with King Philip within a year or two. The text of letters from Selectman Rob Garrity, Selectman Jim Lehan, and Town Administrator Jack Hathaway are below.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Rob Garrity:

Dear Members of the Norfolk School Committee,

I understand that this evening you will be voting on whether to enter into an agreement with the KP school committee regarding a joint superintendent. As you may know, I support the increased use of regional services, particularly with our KP-partner towns Plainville and Wrentham, but I think progressing on a joint superintendency at this time would be counterproductive to that goal and I ask you to not proceed with this proposal.

My understanding of the proposal at hand is that Norfolk and KP would share a superintendent, allowing KP to hire an additional Assistant Superintendent with responsibility over curriculum development. I completely agree that KP needs more resources to deal with curriculum issues, particularly as a split-district trying to integrate students from the three towns who are learning things differently. It may eventually make sense to have a single district K-12 so that the programs are aligned from the start, but I think realizing that is a ways away.

My concern is that taking this vote now, and proceeding with the joint superintendency now, will actually stifle further cooperation between the towns and will be bad for all three towns, for different reasons. First and foremost, as a Norfolk resident, I believe we will not receive the kind of attention from the joint superintendent we would from our own superintendent. The joint super would have responsibilities for the four schools, the two Norfolk k-6 and the two secondary schools, and the greater challenge of running a regional system would take a larger amount of time, leaving her or him less time to focus on the needs of the K-6 district. Unless you are arguing that Norfolk’s two schools can thrive with a .5 FTE superintendent, I don’t think we would be getting “our money’s worth”, as we would still be paying for a superintendent. (That’s how you get two people (a super and an asst super) for KP) Norfolk will end up paying for one -- and not receiving the value of that salary.

Furthermore, with Norfolk voters making the sacrifice to build a new school, the Norfolk superintendent will have his or her hands full over the next several years. Any building project is difficult, a school building all the more so. Now is not the time for Norfolk’s k-6 district to receive less attention from its superintendent.

Conversely, I think the other two towns would feel that Norfolk was receiving undue attention, and that would distract from our continued efforts to realize regional efficiencies. I believe a joint superintendency can only be undertaken when all three towns are ready to proceed. A unilateral decision by Norfolk and the KP committee is doomed to create more discord and difficulty, not less.

Finally, as a selectman with responsibilities to the citizens of Norfolk, I am a bit surprised that this has been proceeding very below the “radar screen”. The public is not aware that these discussions have been happening, and the Selectmen of Norfolk have not been formally appraised of these discussions. Putting aside my own personal feelings, I think there are a number of strongly held feelings in town about the lines between Norfolk and King Philip, and to proceed in this hasty manner without a full public discussion would be disastrous to our shared goals of great efficiency and stronger educational facilities.

I ask that you delay the vote on this issue until a full public discussion can be had on this very important matter.

Sincerely,

Rob Garrity

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Jim Lehan: Dear committee members:

I applaud your efforts to share services. This is indeed a direction that over time I believe will serve our students well. What I am concerned about is process. Your vote this evening would represent a significant organizational shift in our schools. This may very well be the right decision, but such a major consideration requires community input. To move forward without involving the entire community-not just the school parents may very well undo your best efforts.

There are a number of issues that need a full and healthy discussion. We will be opening a new school around the time of this change and I would question whether this structure would present the necessary oversight that will be required. I am also concerned about the budgeting process where there may very well be conflicting interests. These questions as well as others that have been raised may in fact have very reasonable answers, but this discussion needs to be held publicly and involve the entire community. I respectfully request that you delay a vote this evening and develop a strategy to bring the entire community into this discussion. I know that our board will assist in any way that will be helpful.

Thank you for your consideration and your hard work

Jim

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Jack Hathaway:

Dear Members of the Norfolk School Committee,

I wanted to let you know that I share many of the same concerns that Rob Garrity expressed to you in his letter about the potential for sharing a Superintendent with King Philip.

Before I share my concerns, let me tell you that it is not my intent to Monday morning quarterback or to punish a good deed, but rather to share my concerns with the goal of success for all of us.

I am 100% percent in favor of regionalization. We have made a lot of headway in regionalization of services over the past few years with several significant additions to our regionalization portfolio in our water department, fire response and advanced life support. In terms of Public Safety in general, regionalization used to mean providing mutual aid after a town was overwhelmed by an incident. We now have agreements to respond at the same time as the home community in certain agreed upon scenarios, and vice versa. This has been driven by our mutually depleted staffing levels and growing communities. It isn’t an ideal solution because of added response time but when compared to the alternative of our current abilities it is the best case scenario. These agreements have allowed us to continue life saving services during these very difficult financial times. The Police departments provide mutual aid not only for “routine” police actions, but more dramatically in extreme emergencies that we have seen in an all too frequent regularity over the last few years in terms of missing persons, hostage situations, domestic violence, murders and suicides. We could never begin to fund the necessary training for all of the different expertise we have at our disposal regionally. We are very fortunate that we have these enhanced services.

My first concern related to consideration before you is related to all of this good work that we have done, and there is much more good work than I have listed here including accomplishments by the 4 Superintendents. I am worried that without a well thought out and executed plan to include all 3 towns in the hiring of this key position, we may damage our relationship with Wrentham and Plainville. While the department heads in the 3 towns and KP work very well together, I am concerned that we haven’t experienced much success at the elected officials level in terms of collaboration. Obviously there are exceptions and hopefully we will see continued collaboration across the 3 towns and other towns as well. If we disrupt our relationship with Wrentham and Plainville I fear that we will impact some of the programs that we have put in place and we will likely hurt our chances for additional collaboration in the future. I would hope that we would obtain Wrentham and Plainville’s by in to this agreement prior to setting it in motion.

My second concern is that Norfolk will need a Superintendent who is 100% focused on Norfolk over the next couple of years. The new school building will take up a ridiculous amount of his or her time and I am concerned that a part time Superintendent will be overwhelmed and will either short change Norfolk or KP. I wouldn’t want to have Norfolk or KP short changed. We also have teacher negotiations going on at KP and soon to be opened up in Norfolk, both of these challenges will be....challenging and time consuming.

I also agree with Rob that we need to have a full public discussion about this very important matter.

Please take these comments in the light that is intended which is to help promote success for all of us and I realize that you have may have already considered these concerns and are dealing with them appropriately.

Jack Hathaway Town Administrator