ROWE — A vote on whether Rowe should join the Mohawk Trail Regional School District — ending a 35-year separation — has been tabled until the annual town meeting on May 8.
Rowe School Committee members Susan Zavotka and Ellen Miller asked the 30 residents who came to Thursday’s special town meeting to table the vote, so the issue could be voted on by a larger crowd at annual town meeting.
Last spring, all Mohawk towns voted in favor of Rowe rejoining Mohawk in July 2017. But Rowe’s article, if approved, would start Rowe’s Mohawk membership in July 2018, so all the Mohawk towns have to vote on the issue again.
Zavotka said the School Committee voted in March to endorse Rowe’s rejoining Mohawk.
Rowe, a founding Mohawk member town, had been asked to voluntarily withdraw from the district in 1982, when Rowe’s utility-rich tax valuations drove down the district’s financial eligibility for state education money. But formula changes at the state level since then mean the entire district would no longer be hurt by Rowe’s tax valuation.