Multiple parents who say the only reason they live in the Middlefield/Durham area is for its schools sounded off Wednesday night over a plan to close the John Lyman School.
On Monday, the Regional School District 13 board of education voted to close the school, a move parents called a surprise because the vote was not included on the board’s agenda for that meeting and there was no advance public notice.
When the Board met again Wednesday evening, more than 100 parents and students showed up to express their displeasure about the vote and the possibility of their beloved school closing.
“I don’t think you understand your role as a publicly elected representative and I think you should consider resigning now,” one parent said to the board during the public comment period.
“If people are coming into your town for this program, why wouldn’t you keep it around?,” another asked to applause from parents who said Lyman School is their community’s largest draw.
The board said the move to consider closing Lyman was forced by dramatic declines in state funding and in enrollment in recent years. The district shrunk from close to 2,100 students in the 2009 school year to less than 1,700 students this year.
But parents, like Lindsay Dahlheimer, who moved to the district so her sons could get the school’s unique, integrated day, higher order thinking, curriculum, said the way the vote happened was wrong and she wants this school open.
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“We put our faith in the school board to make a proactive effort to represent our kids. Five or six people are making a decision for hundreds and hundreds of kids,” she said.
After a lengthy period of public comment at Wednesday’s school board meeting and a remark from one board member who said Monday’s vote might have broken the public trust, the board’s chair told NBC Connecticut that there might still be a way for Lyman to remain open, but the district needs to find savings somewhere.
“The option is ‘How do we go through the three options that we have and come up with one that fits everybody’s need?’” said Bob Moore, chairman of the Regional School District 13 Board of Education
The board is also considering merging the school with other.
As for the next steps in deciding the future of Lyman school, the board is preparing to send written communication to parents about another school board meeting where the school will be discussed. That meeting is scheduled for April 25.
