Norwich ― Faced with a June deadline to decide whether to negotiate a new five-year contract with Norwich Free Academy or let the current contract automatically be renewed, the Board of Education voted Tuesday to ask the academy to open negotiations on a new deal.

Norwich school board member Mark Kulos asked that the item be added to Tuesday night’s agenda and asked for immediate action before the June deadline. The board voted 7-0 with two members absent to notify NFA officials that the city district seeks to negotiate a new contract naming NFA as the city’s designated high school.

The current contract expires June 30, 2025, but requires a notice to negotiate two years prior to expiration. The contract is universal for all eight NFA partner districts, with Norwich receiving a $200 per student discount as the host city providing emergency and other city services to the academy.

Kulos said negotiating a new deal makes sense, because NFA will have a new head of school, Nathan Quesnel, at the start of the next school year, and already has a new board of trustees chairman, David Kalla.

“We’re in budget problems, they’re in budget problems,” Kulos said. “By opening negotiations, maybe we’ll come up with a better, favorable deal, maybe we’ll agree on the same points. If we don’t do that, we’re locked into the next five-year renewal with the same terms we had previously.”

Board member Christine Distasio said Norwich should ask that the $200 discount be increased for Norwich students.

NFA spokesman Michael O’Farrell said Tuesday night that no other partner district has notified NFA of its plans to seek negotiations.

Current NFA Head of School Brian Kelly, who will depart in June, issued a statement Tuesday night following the Norwich board’s vote.

“At NFA, we have been pleased with the growth of our partnership with Norwich Public Schools) in the last three years, and we look forward to continuing to build that relationship throughout this process, all while ensuring our students receive the best education possible,” he said.

The board approved the current five-year contract in July 2020. At the time, Norwich had sought several changes to special education services and notifications of any proposed changes to special education services. The contract adopted some of the city’s requests. The contract did not include Norwich’s request that NFA provide paraeducator support for special education students based on their needs. The city district pays for paraeducators when needed.

c.bessette@theday.com