BERNARDSTON — A joint meeting of the Bernardston, Leyden, Northfield and Warwick selectboards will take place in order to discuss the future of Pearl Rhodes Elementary School and its potential closure.
The meeting, which is open to the public, will be at the Bernardston Town Hall at 38 Church St. at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 13. The Leyden school is the only topic on the agenda.
According to Bernardston Selectboard Chairman Stanley Garland, members of the public will be able to share their opinions.
“It will be a very informal meeting. We want to hear what people have to say,” Garland said.
Pearl Rhodes is the smallest school — in terms of enrollment — in the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, which is facing budgetary shortfalls.
The school, which runs from preschool through sixth grade, has seen enrollment decrease almost every year in the past decade, with 33 students enrolled at the start of the current school year.
About two-thirds of Pearl Rhodes students are from Leyden, and the rest are through School Choice. Over the past five years, enrollment has decreased at an average rate of 2.6 students annually.
The school’s low enrollment and budget — in recent years between $500,000 and $600,000 — have been cited in arguments by proponents for the school’s closure.
“I know there’s an issue with the enrollment figures,” said Leyden Selectman Jeffrey Neipp.
Some parents, on the other hand, don’t want to see the school close or their children have to travel somewhere else for school. According to Garland, both sides should have an opportunity to air their opinions.
“You can’t just get upset about this, because if you don’t start talking and have conversations, nothing will go anywhere,” Garland said. “This is just a discussion.”
Garland reiterated that no decisions will be made at the meeting, but in the future, there will be hard choices to confront.
“The bottom line is if it’s costing double what it’s costing to go somewhere else, you’ve got to start looking at it,” Garland said. “This is all plain economics and efficiency we’re talking about.”
The school district has a lunch program deficit of $247,130.48 as of December 2017, a deficit that grew nearly $50,000 over the previous year.
Budget cuts of $400,000 or $680,000 were presented earlier this year, and would see assessments raised at an average of 2.74 percent and 0.47 percent, respectively.
Pearl Rhodes is about a 13-minute commute from Bernardston Elementary School, which has around 160 enrolled students and also has decreasing enrollment rates. Additionally, Bernardston Elementary Principal Bob Clancy is doubling as Pearl Rhodes principal this year, since former Pearl Rhodes principal Deanna Leblanc left the school last July.
School district Superintendent Ruth Miller — who herself has announced she is leaving her position for good in June, citing budgetary struggles — publicly opined that discussion of Pearl Rhodes potentially closing led to Leblanc finding a different job.
But, according to Miller, Pearl Rhodes cannot simply be closed, because there is a written agreement between the four towns in the school district — Bernardston, Leyden, Northfield and Warwick. There have already been talks about restructuring the agreement drafted in the 1990s, but right now, a closure would violate it.
Essentially, Miller said, the agreement calls for students to go to school within their own respective towns in the school district. Miller said rewording the agreement could likely come up during Tuesday night’s meeting.
According to Neipp, no decision should be made about the school before Miller leaves, a new superintendent is installed and the new administration can analyze the budget problems.
“This is all premature. I wouldn’t be closing Pearl Rhodes until we get a new administration at Pioneer,” Neipp said. “We need to start making better decisions than just looking at the bottom line and saying ‘let’s get rid of it.’”
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.