BERNARDSTON — Public forums on the HEART Committee’s ongoing work will likely begin in the coming two months.
Since the summer, the HEART Committee (Honest Education and Retaining Trust) has been working with consultants to study the long-term financial viability of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District vis-a-vis the school choice system; administrative needs and the options for combining certain administrative roles with neighboring school districts; the potential impacts of school closures; and the four-town agreement that governs the member towns’ involvement with the district.
The HEART Committee expects its consultants to have preliminary findings ready this month, likely in time for the committee’s next meeting on Oct. 17 at the Bernardston Senior Center at 7 p.m., at which the consultants will be present. At that point, the committee will have a stronger sense of what the scope of the first public forums may be, committee members said at a meeting this week.
Since beginning their study, the consultants have emphasized the importance of public transparency in the process, given the sensitive nature of certain elements of their study — most notably, the rewriting of the district agreement and the consideration of school closures.
Warwick resident Tom Wyatt, who regularly attends meetings of the HEART Committee and the Warwick School Preservation Committee, said at the meeting that Warwick residents, especially, will want to see compelling data before options to close the town’s elementary school can be seriously considered.
The results of the study could impact the functioning of the school district as soon as the 2019-2020 school year. HEART Committee members hope that a new district agreement will be ready for the towns to vote on at their town meetings in the spring.
Decisions on school closures could happen within a similar timeframe. Steve Hemman, one of the HEART Committee’s consultants, said that the new district agreement will likely require a waiting period before a school can be closed, in order to ensure that the necessary data can be collected and to prevent rash decisions.
But that requirement would be met by the current study, Hemman said — meaning that if a new agreement is approved this spring, the School Committee might have the authority to close a school in time for the 2019-2020 school year.