BERNARDSTON — To keep with one of the original plans for the HEART Committee, a few members are forming a working group to analyze the regional agreement under which Pioneer Valley Regional School District towns operate.
Committee member Tony Matteo of Northfield proposed the idea during a meeting in the Powers Institute, last week, after members of the Bernardston Selectboard reminded the committee its original scope involved recommending changes to the regional agreement.
The regional agreement is a document created by the four Pioneer towns — Leyden, Warwick, Bernardston and Northfield — outlining the rules under which the towns will operate by joining the school district together. According to the regional agreement, the document was approved in 1991 and hasn’t been amended in any way since 1999, though the nature of the district has changed significantly.
Back in January, the Bernardston Selectboard organized a joint meeting of selectboards and finance committees from Northfield, Bernardston, Leyden and Warwick, along with Superintendent Ruth Miller and the Pioneer School Committee, to discuss how to change the school system to make it more financially sustainable. The four towns decided to organize the HEART Committee, or the committee for “Honest Education and Retaining Trust,” with creating a financially sustainable school system being its primary goal.
At the time, meeting attendees agreed they didn’t feel prepared to recommend changes to the regional agreement without first considering districtwide goals that an updated agreement could accomplish. However, during Wednesday’s meeting, the subject of the regional agreement resurfaced as posing an obstacle to change.
Matteo proposed having a working group that will bring back recommendations for district agreement revisions to the larger committee. Tentatively, the working group will be made up of Matteo, Robert Keir of Bernardston, and Alan Genovese of Warwick.
Reach Shelby Ashline at: sashline@recorder.com
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