Daniel Jerram - First Selectman of New Hartford

The History behind Bakerville School and the Bakerville Consolidated School.

As I write this note, we are now three meetings into our “School Facility Utilization Study”, the last of which occurred at Bakerville Consolidated School last Wednesday evening (11th) when roughly 40 people came out to listen. The study in large part has been put in place as a result of long-term enrollment decline. Have you been following along?

We in New Hartford have a long history of these types of studies - the last of which was completed 10 years ago when the local student population had declined to just 475 students. In December of 2015, our local Board of Education voted to close Bakerville Consolidated School with very little notice. It was a shock to our community. After many meetings, and some spirited debate, a non-binding referendum was held asking the question: Should the Bakerville Consolidated School Be Closed? Ultimately the Town voted to “Save Bakerville School” and three local elementary schools remain in use today.

Some may ask: Why go through this again? Well student population continues to decline (now at 441 students – locally with significant decline also occurring at Regional 7) and as you all aware costs (and your taxes) continue to rise. A fact highlighted during evaluation of NHES roof last summer when it was revealed that the 24,000 square foot school building served only 95 students – and that this low level of enrollment could dramatically impact our eligibility for state grant funding (forcing our residents/taxpayers to pay an even larger share of the roof cost). When our consultants asked about enrollment at our “other school”, they were surprised to learn that a town of 6,600 people had three elementary schools – not just two. I’ve searched the state for towns with populations under 10,000 residents and to this day, I have yet to find another community with more than two elementary schools (I plan to do a future FB post on how I believe we came to have our three schools).

My personal thought is that these studies are good for the Town. They either confirm that we’re heading in the right direction, or they let us know that perhaps some modifications need to be made – and they tell us that with data void of personal opinion (the engineers are experts who don’t have a personal stake in the outcome).

Let me tell you about the history of Bakerville School and how the Bakerville Consolidated School came to be… It started with – you guessed it - another study.

Many years ago, there were four elementary schools on the south side of New Hartford. That’s right…four separate schools in the second district. These included the Bakerville School (now the Bakerville Library on Maple Hollow Road), the Merrill School House (on South Road), the Southeast School House (on Southeast Road) and get this…the “Harwinton Fractional Share School” (yes, we had a regionalized elementary school with Harwinton) on East Cotton Hill Road. Who knew!

Pre-1940…the town conducted a similar utilization “study” which led to the construction of the new Bakerville Consolidated School on Cedar Lane. That study…not unlike the one we’re undertaking now…helped define our direction for the future.

Ultimately after several attempts to scuttle the project in 1938 and 1939, the Bakerville Consolidated School was finally approved in May of 1940. This would merge the four south side schools into one new “consolidated” school (thus the school name).

Town residents approved a whopping $40,000 to build the school which included three classrooms and an auditorium (that was subsequently expanded over time).

The original building was completed in 1941. On September 29, 1941, sale of the Merrill and Southeast Schools were approved. In May of 1944, the Harwinton Fractional Share School was approved for sale and the original Bakerville School was gifted to the “Bakerville Community Association” for $1 – and with the efforts of Barbara Yedlin and her “little red wagon” it became the Bakerville Library. Just a couple of years later another study led to the creation of New Hartford Elementary School (that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago).

Much can be learned in the Town Clerks office at Town Hall. I frequently call Lynn and Sharon (who work there) our “Librarians” for all things "New Hartford". Much of this good history is recorded in the “Town Meeting Minutes”, that have recorded our towns official actions since our inception in 1738. Town Meetings (separate from Selectmen or Board of Education routine meetings) happened much more frequently 80 years ago – sometimes once or twice a month. The meetings typically started at 8pm…and could run late into the night…and there were conceptual “fights” to be had about the future direction of our town.

Many times, in reading these old minutes (which are recorded in brief snippets – far less than the standard minutes taken at today’s meetings), just when you thought the Town had settled on how we would be handling a specific situation (either procedurally, monetarily, or both), there would be an attempt to modify or negate that result at the very next Town Meeting just a couple of weeks later. Some of the biggest fights at Town Meetings in the early days dealt with the sale of alcohol, the use of motorboats on West Hill Pond and whether or not we should join Northwestern Regional #7.

As many of you know, I grew up here in New Hartford in a very large family with five brothers….and we all attended local schools. Not sure how my parents pulled that off…physically and financially – but one thing is clear: there are few families now with more than two children. With that comes the question: Can we consolidate schools? Will that save our residents any money? Are there other uses for these facilities? Perhaps a consolidation effort may not save a lot of money, but would the effort allow us to provide a better and/or different service to our residents by modifying the use of one of our current school facilities? Time will tell.

I hope this account reminds us all, that in this past scenario, our town worked together to change our future. It took time, thoughtful study and debate – and yes some taxpayer money. But the result was great (for that time and place in our history) – and in that particular instance – our residents chose to consolidate our south side schools to provide efficiencies. They sold off some surplus property - and (through our gift) helped an older former school building find a new purpose. A new Library was created that still exists and thrives to this day.

Now I’m not trying to direct you to a specific outcome before the process has even finished – but without this study (hopefully completed with all of your participation) we can’t really understand the wants and needs of our residents. Meetings have been somewhat lightly attended and all that’s really missing is YOU! Remember virtual attendance is available – so you can tune in from home!

At the last meeting, a facilities study was released that documented several Million dollars in costs for all three school buildings. Let’s be clear, the purpose of this study was not an attempt to sell you on an expensive building project. Nothing could be further from the truth. This study was proposed to seek efficiencies in utilization - plain and simple.

The report produced is an engineer’s view of the three schools – that included many redundant expenses. Some were “condition” related and some were “code” related. This is not to say that once a school building (or any type of building for that matter) is built that a few years later we as taxpayers must “automatically” bring everything up to today’s code. That’s not true. That said, if we voluntarily decide to renovate a structure, that portion of the building does have to meet current code requirements.

Soon to be released will be a population study. Again, this will give us estimates on how many new children will arrive (in the next few years) and how many classroom spaces we will need to have prepared to service these future students. Again, really good data to have on a go forward basis. Population studies can make me a bit nervous, because our Town has received poor estimates in the past and made decisions to accommodate students that never materialized.

Your Board of Selectmen is not afraid of change. Nor are we afraid to invest in our facilities or our future…but it has to make sense.

All that’s missing from the process is you and your good ideas for our future. In my years of working in Town Government, both as a member of the Board of Education (R7) and as your First Selectman, I’ve found that good ideas rarely have a hard time getting approved.

What ideas do you have?

Please keep an eye on the New Hartford Public Schools website https://www.newhtfd.org/.../school-facility-utilization... for meeting agendas, minutes and any other information that may be posted regarding this task force and the study.

Stay Involved in the process! The next meeting is on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at Ann Antolini and it starts at 7pm.

Thanks!
Dan

Busy morning with car accidents. After an earlier crash on Route 202 our Police and Firemen are on Town Hill Road (Route 219) @ #428. A car left the road and broke a utility pole and left very low hanging wires blocking the roadway. The road will be closed for several hours. Thankfully there were no injuries. Please avoid the area and use Steele Road or West Hill as alt routes. Thanks!

Wind last night has knocked out power in various spots in town...and there are some closed roads including: South Rd, Turnbull Rd and Davis Road. Eversouce is on scene and working. Please avoid these areas. 316 homes (about 10%) are without power. If you are without power please notify Eversource directly @ 800-286-2000. Thanks!

The world's most famous arena... Waiting for UConn to begin!

In other news...this one is for our West Hill families...

Connecticut Siting Council denies solar farm for Torrington forest on West Hill Lodestar Energy's proposal was to build a solar farm on West Hill Road that would have removed about 19 acres of trees.

Happy to support (and endorse) Mike Criss in his run for the 8th District State Senate. Mike is a long time First Selectman of Harwinton (14 years) and for many years has been the Legislative Chairman of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments. Mike tracks bills that will impact our families and travels to Hartford frequently to give testimony. He's a natural for this position...because he (like me) believes that we need change in Hartford to make Connecticut affordable for working families (lets start with improving education funding and then tackle the public benefits charge on our power bills). I'm sure we'll see Mike campaigning in New Hartford this summer! I hope you'll support his campaign!

How much snow did you get? Looks to be about a foot at my house...with some larger drifts to near two feet. Winds have slowed and our DPW is tired, but catching up. We have about 30 outages currently (mostly small local issues that Eversouce is working on), and some downed wires on Ratlum Road, but otherwise - it looks like we're on the road to digging out. Other then Ratlum Road, Police, Fire and EMS are doing well. Please be careful shoveling the snow. Take your time... BYW...thanks to Carlene for making the DPW guys some meatballs for a late night snack and Donna Koether for the Blonde Brownies (they were a big hit)!

Still a bit of time to get ready!! This storm will not only have a lot of snow, but high winds and drifting. This could cause significant power outages. Heaviest snow predicted between 11pm and 6am. Please stay off the roads tonight and let our team do their job. No school tomorrow (both local and regional) and Town Hall will be closed too. Stay safe. If you need help message me here. If you have an emergency, as always use 911. Thanks!

I was going to post a "current" pic of New Hartford Elementary School (NHES) to draw attention to the School Facilities Task Force meeting tonight (at NHES at 7pm), but I went for the sunny, summer shot instead. To be honest, the rainy day shots I took yesterday came out terrible (foggy)...and would easily be passed over in the quick scroll world of FB and social media.

So what is the "School Facilities Task Force"? Its a team of volunteers from our Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and local Board of Education - plus two community members - who have volunteered to take a "fresh look" at how our schools are utilized in the delivery of education to our children. Are the schools in good shape? Do they need work? What's the outlook for student population in the future? Part of the study will provide new estimates. Are there opportunities for efficiency/improvement/savings? Time will tell. Please note that larger class sizes are not being considered. It's more about using the classroom spaces we have more effectively (empty classrooms vacated by Oak Hill, for example).

Has this type of study been done before? Yes...many times! Unfortunately, the last time (about 10 years ago)...it didn't work out so well - and some good lessons were learned in how we communicate with our residents. We also learned a lot about respecting different opinions (and patience).

How did this come about you ask? Well, a combination of things. Last year...in an attempt to replace the aging roof at NHES, our engineering consultants told us that the roof (estimated to cost $1.4 million) would receive little state grant funding due to very low enrollment at that school (the building with 24,500 square feet had roughly 95 students at that time - well below state recommendations for use of space). At the same time, the budget deliberations last year were very difficult - that led the local BOE to suggest the study and the Finance Board and Selectmen agreed that it was a good idea.

The meeting tonight is "in person" at NHES, but can also be viewed online through the posted agendahttps://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1770905550/newhtfdorg/c9gqfkycls116g4mujaz/2026-02-19SchoolFacilityUtilizationTaskForce-Packet.pdf

BTW...local town government (both our schools and town hall) is never perfect, but we try our best...and NHES is a good example of a past study process done well (granted it was many years ago). The school exists today as the direct result of a study committee...done in the 1950's. No, I'm not suggesting that we need to build a new school - but if your interested in the trivia...the school cost $445,000 to build (not including the $5,000 the town paid for the land). It was completed a couple years before the infamous Flood of 1955 - and was state of the art at that time. After completion, most Town Meetings were held there as the gym was far better than Town Hall. Its last renovation was done between 2004 and 2006 (for about $2.8 Million). If you haven't been to the school in a while, you could probably get a quick tour tonight...granted the students and teachers won't be there.

I think its fitting that a study of this kind (with professional engineering support) happens during the school year; so this team can see the schools while they are in operation first hand. Also during budget season so that they get a better understanding of how that translates into budget decisions and how our tax dollars are spent (together we spend over $22 million on education -including R7). I would hope everyone embraces the study...and looks forward to what it can reveal. You can, through your participation, be a part of the process.

Tonight's meeting is the second to be held. The first meeting (last month) was really just organizational - and there may be more of that tonight - but I'm looking forward to hearing (and learning) more. Tune in...and check it out.

Keep an eye on the New Hartford Public Schools website https://www.newhtfd.org/board-of-education/school-facility-utilization-task-force for meeting agendas, minutes and any other information that may be posted regarding this task force.

Stay Involved in the process! FYI...if you can't make tonight's meeting, the next opportunity is March 11, 2026 at Bakerville School. Thanks!

The clean-up /dig out / push back continues... Our DPW teams did a great job last night in very difficult conditions. Town Hall is closed today, but should re-open tomorrow on-time. Ski Sundown looks to be having a great day...with lots of powder. If you're on the roads, stay safe. Thankfully the lights stayed on all night!

New Hartford residents: The storm has begun and our team is prepared. Please be careful today. We're encouraging all residents to ride this one out at home! Unnecessary travel on the roads just makes our DPW teams job (and the State's too) much more difficult. It also puts you and your family at risk - so stay off the roads if you can! We're hopeful for minimal impact on the electrical grid... Currently there are no outages. Please be mindful of elderly neighbors and take your time with snow removal. This one could be a marathon... Stay safe! If you are in need of assistance - message me here and we'll do the best we can!

So...good news...The Gov is taking action to protect farmers from The Gov. Must be an election year. Thanks to all who signed the petition. Imagine what we could accomplish if we all continued to work together...

Governor Ned Lamont is taking immediate action to protect Connecticut farmers from rising property taxes that threatened to put some out of business.

🔗https://www.wfsb.com/2026/01/19/lamont-freezes-farm-property-tax-assessments-protect-connecticut-farmers/