WARWICK — All strategies for preserving Warwick Community School are on the table for the Selectboard, even if it means leaving the Pioneer Valley Regional School District.
But, the soonest Warwick could join another district would be fall of 2020, according to the rules of the state Department of Education. Meanwhile, the School Committee is under pressure to close one or both of the district’s smaller elementary schools this spring — in time for the 2019-2020 school year. The other school is Pearl Rhodes Elementary School in Leyden.
“We’re asking for more time,” said Adam Holloway, an organizer of the Warwick Education Task Force, a residents’ group that’s researching options for keeping their town’s school open.
Last spring, the Pioneer district discovered a $450,000 deficit. The state then passed special legislation allowing the district to borrow money to cover the deficit, under the condition that the district would regularly report to the Department of Education and demonstrate that work is being done to address the underlying structural problem in the district’s business model.
With per-pupil costs at Warwick Community School and Leyden’s Pearl Rhodes Elementary School — Pioneer’s two smaller elementary schools — considerably higher than at the two larger schools in Northfield and Bernardston, School Committee members and district administrators see a potential for efficiency in closing one or both of the smaller schools and consolidating the district’s elementary students in Northfield’s and Bernardston’s buildings. The School Committee’s votes on the closures are expected in March.
But, in Warwick, many have openly opposed the Pioneer district’s interest in closing their school, including all three Selectboard members.
Since the fall, Task Force members have been speaking with neighboring districts, with the Selectboard joining the conversation most recently. Mahar Regional School District is the only one that’s been discussed publicly.
“They have let on that the future of their school is in question,” said Mahar School Committee member Lynn Peredina. “They’re very non-committal,” she added.
Mahar is changing its regional agreement for approval at its towns’ spring town meetings this year. But, that is too soon for Warwick to jump on, the Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wulfson told Task Force members during a recent phone call.
If Warwick were to leave the Pioneer district, it would have to give the Department of Education a complete plan by Jan. 1, Holloway said.
Leaving Pioneer would also require Warwick to pay out its long-term obligations to the district — post-employment benefits, debts and the like.
“It would basically be a wash,” Selectboard Chairman Doc Pruyne said, because the town is already committed to paying the money in the long-term. The priority, he emphasized, is to keep the school open.
“We do not want to allow our school to be closed even one year,” Pruyne said. “The general consensus is, if the school closes, it won’t ever re-open.”
Yet, with the Pioneer School Committee under pressure to make a decision this spring, and Warwick apparently having no quick way out of the district, the school’s supporters can only hope that the School Committee’s decision lines up with their wishes.
“We’re not getting solid info from the district as to which way they’re going to go,” Holloway said. “It’s been a wild roller coaster in terms of, are they closing, are they not closing. It’s continually switching back and forth.”
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.