Faced with declining enrollment, Heath officials will meet Thursday with the selectmen and school committee members from Hawley and Charlemont to discuss prospects of Heath to join the Hawlemont Regional School District.

The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. inside the Heath Elementary School, at 18 Jacobs Road.

Heath is now a K-12 member town in the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, while Hawley and Charlemont are Grade 7-12 Mohawk member towns. Hawley and Charlemont educate their K-6 schoolchildren through Hawlemont Regional School District, sharing their own elementary costs in proportion to their enrollment averages. This year, Hawlemont had 102 students.

“I think, this is just exploring right now,” said Heath selectmen’s Chairwoman Sheila Litchfied. “Hawlemont and Heath haven’t talked yet — only at the Heath (Education Initiative) Task Force.”

The task force has been meeting almost weekly since January to look at the town’s best options for educating its children in light of the declining enrollment. The Heath School was built in 1995, and opened in September 1996. Before that, Heath paid tuition to send its children to the Rowe Elementary School, but opened its own school at a time when its enrollment became too large for Rowe.

This year, according to state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education enrollment data, the Heath Elementary School had 50 students enrolled in pre-K through Grade 6 this year; with only two students enrolled in both Grades 2 and 5.

“It was pretty clear that, after this one school year, things are going to change,” said Litchfield. “Heath has to start exploring, and there will also be a meeting with Rowe, to be scheduled yet.”

Heath Elementary School is ranked as a Level 1 school based on its MCAS test results, but with three classroom teachers and a $1.3 million building budget, the Mohawk district per-pupil cost in Heath this past year was about $22,000 — compared to $12,232 in the Buckland Shelburne Elementary School, $14,632 at Sanderson Academy, and $19,029 at Colrain Central.

According to minutes of the Heath Educational Initiative Task Force, that group has discussed various scenarios, from sharing classes with Colrain Central School or Buckland Shelburne Elementary (BSE), to exploring prospects with Hawlemont or Rowe.

“One of our hopes is that what would remain in Heath would be an early education program, for children in pre-K through Grade 1,” said Litchfield. “But it depends on how voters feel, and on what kind of space is available. There’s a lot of work yet to be done.”

According to the June 16 meeting minutes of the town’s educational task force, the group is looking at options to keep pre-K to Grade 2 in the Heath School, while sending the older students to either Hawlemont, Rowe, Colrain or to BSE.

Another possibility is either joining the Hawlemont district — possibly after a trial period in which Heath would pay tuition to see how the arrangement works. Another idea to be explored is to become part of a two-town regional elementary school district with Rowe or possibly with Colrain.

You can reach Diane Broncaccio at:
dbroncaccio@recorder.com
or at 413-625-9293.