About the Board
Brief History Region #12 Board of Education
On August 16th, 1967 the Towns of Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington joined to form a K-12 education system designated as Shepaug Valley School District #12. The Region 12 Board of Education was formed and operates under the authority of Connecticut General Statutes and serves as an agent of the State. The first Board of Education meeting was held September 13th, 1967, 8pm in the Washington High School library (the current Washington Primary School). The current consolidated middle school and high school – Shepaug Valley School - opened in 1972.
Currently the membership of the Board of Education has 12 members who are each elected by their respective towns for four-year terms; 3 from Bridgewater, 3 from Roxbury and 6 from Washington. The number of members on the Board from each town is decided as a result of the United States decennial census. Originally, the Board had 9 members. Prior to the year 2010 the Board had 13 members with Washington having 7 members, but it lost one member after the 2010 census since its population decreased slightly since the 2000 census. Similarly, each town’s responsibility to pay its share of the annual budget of the Region is determined by each town’s percentage of the number of students it has enrolled in the Region each year.
Although individual Board of Education members are elected at elections held in Town Meetings in their individual towns and have constituencies from their home towns, each Board members primary constituency and responsibility is to Region 12 as a whole and their decisions on the myriad of issues that come before the Board should be based on what is in the best interests of Region 12 as a whole.
The primary responsibilities of the Board of Education are to set policy for the operation of the Region’s school system and monitor compliance through executive governance, to hire the Superintendent of Schools who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Region, responsible to carry out the policies of the Board of Education and drive learning outcomes; and to set the annual budget.
Because Shepaug is a Regional School District, the Board of Education proposes the Region’s budget each year subject to the approval of the Region as a whole at a budget referendum held in each town in May of each year. Although the towns Boards of Selectmen and Finance are invited to comment and to give their input into the creation of the Regions budget each year, the Regions budget is not subject to the approval of those Boards, but only to the approval of a simple majority of all the voters in the Region.
The Board of Education holds an organizational meeting each July and elects a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary who make up the Executive Committee of the Board for that school year which runs to June 30th of the following year. The bylaws and policies of Region 12 can be found at the Region 12 website - https://www.region-12.org/board-of-education. Except when superseded by these bylaws, Robert´s Rules of Order govern the proceedings of the Board. The Board conducts regular public meetings, special meetings and executive sessions as appropriate. Together, the Board of Education and the Region 12 staff work in concert to continue to deliver be a vibrant, relevant school system.