Hey Falls Village, bigger can be better!

This is the second of a two-part series. Find the first part online at tcextra.com.

With elementary school enrollment growing smaller every year, where should Falls Village look for a suitable partner? Given their own enrollment losses, most of the rest of the six elementary-middle schools in the region have the excess capacity to handle another 75 to 100 students. But the next smallest in size to Kellogg, Cornwall Consolidated, would stand to benefit the most from the infusion of new students.

Cornwall has 129 students and expects only 122 next year. As recently as 1998, Cornwall had 200 students. And its current per-pupil cost is almost as high as Kellogg’s ($20,929).

The Cornwall school is only 8 miles from the center of Falls Village and has a much more modern facility. Think of the opportunities Falls Village students would have in a school like that. Tiny Kellogg often has to cancel its athletic teams for lack of enough players. But not if there’s consolidation. In addition, extracurriculars such as drama, music and art would be vastly improved. Multi-age groupings (the necessary combining in very small schools of different grades into one classroom) would likely become a thing of the past. And to top it off, the per-pupil costs would be reduced for both towns.

Of course, as Falls Villagers often remind me, the closing of Kellogg was studied in the 1990s. But it was determined that other increased costs, such as transportation, would substantially offset any savings, while depriving the town of its community school. This is surely true, but consolidation is bound to save money in the long run, while providing superior opportunities for the children of Falls Village.

Eventually the aging 1950s-era Kellogg building is going to require a major overhaul or replacement that could force the town to borrow or bond for a substantial sum, driving taxes even higher. By contrast, the Cornwall school has been renovated in the last several years and looks like it’s begging for more students to fully utilize it.

In neighboring Region 7, the towns of Colebrook and Norfolk have been holding discussions about a possible merger of their two local K-6 schools. Why can’t officials in Falls Village and Cornwall join the crowd and conduct a modern cost-benefit analysis that takes into account the expense of long-term maintenance and renovation costs of the Kellogg facility?

It’s not exactly win-win, but it’s mostly win. And shouldn’t that be the goal?

Lakeville resident Terry Cowgill is a former editor and senior writer at The Lakeville Journal Company and is director of development at The Gilbert School in Winsted. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at terrycowgill@gmail.com.