From todays Republican-American

full story at http://rep-am.com

CORNWALL — The matter of equal town assessments for the Region 1 superintendent’s salary and benefits was discussed at Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen. Commonly referred to as the “one-seventh model,” the plan calls for each of the seven school boards to pay the same amount. Currently all costs for the region are divided proportionately based on enrollment. The change is being proposed by the All Board Chairmen Committee, which believes such a procedure would be more equitable. Its members say the superintendent gives equal amounts of time to each school in the district, including the six elementary schools in the towns of Canaan, Cornwall, Falls Village, Kent, Salisbury and Sharon, as well as Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
IF IMPLEMENTED, the new method would have the larger schools, such as those in Canaan and Salisbury, pay less and the smaller, such as those in Falls Village and Cornwall, pay more. Cornwall would see an increase of $12,000. Resident Joanne P. Wojtusiak asked that the item be placed on the agenda. In beginning the discussion, First Selectman Gordon M. Ridgway noted that the town gets $85,000 per year from the state’s Educational Cost Sharing grant, the lowest grant of any town. Selectman Richard Bramley said he found it interesting that in most cases of expenditures by the board, if there is an increase, everyone pays its share. But in this case, those with the largest weighted vote can force those with the least weighted vote to pay more. “It doesn’t seem fair,” Branley said. “It’s really not a very good model. I also have a difficult time understanding how the superintendent doesn’t spend more time in the bigger schools.”