NORTHFIELD — New rules governing the school committee and a protocol for school closures will likely be the major additions proposed by the HEART Committee to the Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s four-town agreement.
The new agreement will have to be approved by all four member towns in town meetings. Stephen Hemman, one of the HEART Committee’s consultants, expects the new agreement to be ready in time for the annual town meetings in spring 2019.
But: “I wouldn’t put a time limit on this thing,” Hemman said to the HEART Committee at a meeting on Wednesday. “It’s important to get it right.”
The current agreement requires that students be educated in their own towns through sixth grade, effectively guaranteeing that each town will have its own elementary school. A new agreement, Hemman said, will most likely make it the superintendent’s responsibility to determine where children from each town are educated.
To prevent ill-considered school closures, the proposed agreement will probably require a one-year waiting period to close a school after the initial decision, Hemman said. During the waiting period, information on the financial viability of the school will have to be gathered.
The make-up of the School Committee would also be changed in the new district agreement. The HEART Committee has recommended adding an “at-large” member, bringing the total number of members to 13. This would prevent the tied votes that sometimes occur when the committee is faced with difficult decisions.
Alternative options would be for membership to reflect the size of the member towns (Northfield and Bernardston would have more members than Leyden and Warwick) or for committee members’ votes to be weighted based on the size of their town. All towns would have the same number of members, but members from Northfield and Bernardston would have more votes than members from Leyden and Warwick.
Restrictions on school committee membership will also be added, including term limits and a recall process.
Even though individual member towns may have recall processes for their own elected officials, such laws do not apply to the School Committee because its members are elected in multiple towns.
The term limits are not yet determined.
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.