Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
Durham shows Brenna the love By Kevin and Jen Zettergren Special to Town Times
We lo st ou r s a s s y, brave, funny, extraordinary 5-year-old daughter, Brenna Zettergren, to leukemia on Dec. 22, 2012. As the one year anniversary of her death approached, we asked our friends and neighbors to remember Brenna by donating a toy to Smilow Cancer Hospital’s pediatric unit at the Durham tree lighting held Dec. 7. Not surprisingly, peo-
ple came out in the freezing cold to give us a hug and drop off gifts. In fact, the gifts have not stopped coming. We will be delivering multiple car loads full of toys during this season, to very sick children, from the greatest community and the kindest people we have ever known. We e st abl i s hed t he Brenna Zettergren Memor ia l Schola rsh ip Fund in our daughter’s honor to preserve her
Brenna Zettergren. | (Submitted)
See Brenna / Page 3
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Friday, December 20, 2013
School closing options discussed By Mark Dionne Town Times
At a community workshop, Dec. 11 at Strong Middle School, the public got a look for the first time at potential plans to close one or more schools in Regional School District 13. A rch itectura l a nd educational planners from Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc., a firm hired by the Board of Education at a cost of $69,300, spelled out a range of options for the district. While emphasizing that they were not yet endorsing any specific plan, the DRA representatives described plans that ranged from doing nothing, meaning keeping all six schools, to reinventing the school system. All of the options in the middle of those extremes involved closing at least one school. A demographic study commissioned by the BOE predicted declining enrollment in RSD13. In the months since, BOE members have cautiously avoided speculating about closing a school. In public meetings and the BOE’s website FAQs, closing a school has only been referred to as one of the potential options being considered. Jim Barrett, a DRA education facility planner who ran the workshop, made that option far less hypothetical, presenting five different district reconfigurations with fewer schools. “We want to cover the widest range possible,” Barrett said.
Paul Moore, left, educational planner from Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc., listens to a parent speak in favor of maintaining two programs in Regional School District 13 during a breakout session of the Dec. 11 workshop. Standing in the back row observing are several Board of Education members and district administrators, including BOE chair Kerrie Flanagan and interim Superintendent Ernest Perlini, back center. | (Mark Dionne/Town Times) The options had several common characteristics. They each created a traditional middle school at Strong School with sixth t h roug h eig ht h g rades . Each plan maintained both the Integrated Day a nd Contemporary programs. While maintaining the two programs, four of the five options presented housed the two programs in the remaining elementary schools, creating so-called “neighbor-
hood schools” where either program would be available. Korn Elementary School, Lyman Elementary School, and Memorial Middle School were each targeted for closure in different plans, Korn most frequently, followed by Lyman. As an example, the first presented option closed Korn Elementary School, converted Strong Middle See Closing / Page 31
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Volume 20, Number 36
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