Should Norfolk County give up Aggie school?

If he is elected to the Norfolk County Commission, Tom Gorman wants to transfer control of the Norfolk County Agriculture School on Rte. 1A in Walpole to the Blue Hills Regional School District.

But challenger Michael Walsh and incumbents John Gillis and Francis O'Brien, his opponents for the two available seats, think he's all wrong. They don't want the county to get rid of the Aggie.

"I'm very proud of the school," said O'Brien, a Dedham Democrat. "I like to call it the jewel of Norfolk County."

Gorman, a Dedham Republican who is making his second bid for a seat on the commission, is running on the sole issue of eliminating county government - calling the branch antiquated and a waste of tax dollars.

The county operates the Aggie, so if county government were eliminated, the school would have to be transferred to another agency. Other county-run entities would be transferred to the state or sold.

Walsh, an independent from Westwood, O'Brien and Gillis, a Quincy Democrat, argue that removing county government would cost towns like Walpole more money than they would save from not having to pay the tax to the county.

Walsh has said paying for traffic consultants, a service the county provides, would likely prove more expensive for the towns.

Gorman has been trying to eliminate county government through legislative measures for more than a decade.

Most of the state's 14 county governments were dissolved in the early 1990s for financial reasons.

If Gorman gets his wish this time around, he would transfer the Aggie to the Blue Hills Regional School District, which operates the Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton.

Such a measure would require approval from the Blue Hills School Committee - a nine-member board representing each of the region's nine towns, said Blue Hills Superintendent Joseph Ciccolo.

Ciccolo, who hadn't heard the proposal prior to yesterday, said similar transfers have been made in the past, but he and the committee members would have to look deeper into the possibility.

"There's pluses and minuses," Ciccolo said of whether there would be an appetite for running the Aggie. These would have to be assessed, he said.

It would be a simple transfer of jurisdictional duties, said Gorman, and would not impair the school's day-to-day operations.

In fact, he argued, Blue Hills would be better at running a school that's already successful since the Aggie is currently being overseen by the county commissioners, not education professionals.

"You don't need three career politicians administering a school district," he said. "That's not why we elect county commissioners."

Walsh said the Aggie has been successful despite the three county commissioners - calling them distant trustees who don't have a hand in the school's operation.

Walsh noted the Blue Hills School Committee is unpaid and may not necessarily be a better alternative for the Aggie. Based on its Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test results and its unique program offerings, the Aggie has already established itself as a flourishing institute, he said.

Walsh did, however, say that if he was elected he would take an active role in the school's operation and meet with students, not just teachers and administrators, at the Aggie on a regular basis to see what could be improved to make the school even better.

"That's definitely what the commissioners don't do," he said.

O'Brien countered that the three commissioners serve as a school committee for the Aggie and play a pivotal role in its achievements.

"The school's so successful everyone wants to get in," said Gills, crediting the teaching staff and adding that he plans to petition the state for an addition to the school that could accommodate more students.

Many students are denied admission to the Aggie because there are simply so many applications to the small school.

"An awful lot of young people are left disappointed," he said.

The commissioners meet at the school every month as a committee to address the concerns of administrators and teachers.

The commissioners are working to improve classrooms, refurbish barn structures and establish a capital program to serve as a rainy day account.

"I look forward to making it a greater school than what it is," O'Brien said.

Aggie Superintendent Michael McFarland could not be reached for comment.