SHELBURNE — Sixth-graders in the Mohawk Trail Regional School District’s elementary schools will stay put, but the Shelburne Police Department may move out of its two-room office in Memorial Hall — if town officials find a better location for $500,000 or less.
Also, voters at the annual Town Meeting indicated they are willing to cover fiber optic costs for the four percent of the town that will not have broadband access through Comcast.
Those were among voters’ decisions reached in the first of the two-part meeting this week.
Shelburne voters Tuesday night quickly approved two Mohawk articles to allow the district to arrange school bus transportation for vocational students and to remove the outdated Rowe tuition calculations from the school district’s eight-town regional agreement.
After much debate, residents voted 28 “yes” to 39 “no” (with 15 abstentions), defeating a district-wide plan to move sixth-grade students out of the three elementary schools into the Mohawk middle school wing in the fall of 2019.
Shelburne School Committee member Jason Cusimano and Superintendent Michael Buoniconti said the idea of moving sixth-graders to Mohawk began as a cost-saving measure; the cost savings were negligible, but there were educational benefits for sixth-grade students in classrooms with fewer than a dozen students. They said it would bring those students more opportunities to engage in Mohawk activities, including music, arts, sports and STEM (science, technology, English and math) programs.
Initially, this consolidation would have enabled closing the Colrain Central School, but that option has been “taken off the table,” Cusimano said, because enrollment at the Buckland Shelburne Elementary and Sanderson Academy schools has been growing at the preschool and kindergarten level. Buoniconti said recent enrollment growth would make it unlikely that Colrain’s kindergarten through Grade 5 students could be accommodated at Buckland Shelburne Elementary, which has boosted enrollment by 100 students over the past five years through increased preschool and kindergarten. The Mohawk school building can hold 1,000 students, but it now houses fewer than 500.
Some residents said they would rather see the sixth-graders given the chance to be school leaders in their respective elementary schools than to be the youngest in a bigger school setting. Two teachers spoke against the move, and one parent spoke in favor of waiting until there was evidence that the three grade schools are crowded enough to require the move. She said the current increase of youngest children could be a population “bubble” that won’t last, leaving the elementary schools sparsely populated in the future.
After the meeting, Buoniconti said he hopes the other district towns will still approve the measure “in order to give the School Committee a better sense of how the towns feel about the issue.” Buoniconti said Shelburne’s vote defeats the measure, which required all towns’ approval.
Voters agreed to let the Selectboard “negotiate, purchase, renovate or build” a structure to serve as a new police station. They are also to explore financing of $500,000.
Police Chief Greg Bardwell said nine officers currently work out of two offices, taking up about 500 square feet, with equipment, records and storage areas throughout several town buildings. For a department of Shelburne’s size, a 3,000-square-foot facility would be ideal.
Selectmen said there are properties for sale that could be renovated to serve the Police Department, but they may not be on the market for long. Selectmen wanted the authority to negotiate now, and come back to a special town meeting with options. They said the town would get a chance to vote on any purchase before the money is used.
Referring to the last 20 years, when Shelburne looked at sharing police services with Buckland and considered buying other sites for a police station, Fire Chief John Taylor said, “We’ve kicked the can down the road. Shelburne does some things really well. But long-term capital improvement isn’t one of them.”
Whit Sanford, chairwoman of the Strategic Plan Committee, suggested a feasibility study to look at all the space needs of town departments, instead of doing it piecemeal.
“I would like to think about all the departments’ needs. Town offices are insufficient, spatially; these issues are intertwined. It’s important for the town to get ahead of our needs,” she said.
The Technology and Cable Advisory Committee got town approval to set aside $42,597 in stabilization funds to pay part of the costs for a fiber optic network tied to future broadband build-out. The money represents half the estimated costs to provide high-speed broadband access to roughly 22 households — the four percent of Shelburne homes that will not be able to get internet access through the Comcast expansion.
Next year, the advisory committee may request another $42,597 for the remaining fiber optic cost.
Voters approved the town’s $4.1 million operating budget and the $2.2 million Mohawk school district assessment, which represented a 1.7 percent decrease from the current year.
Voters also approved:
$50,000 from stabilization to be used for the Pratt Memorial Library (Arms Library) renovation project.
creating a Highway Equipment Stabilization Account with $85,000 transferred from the Stabilization account.
$15,000 for the Senior Center Capital Fund.
$46,000 for purchase of a 2019 Police Interceptor Cruiser and related equipment.
The meeting has been continued to Wednesday night.