NORTHFIELD — Conversations on school closures and a new school district agreement are expected at the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee’s meeting Thursday, 7 p.m. at the middle-high school in Northfield.
Both are time-sensitive issues. A new district agreement requires Town Meeting approval by at least three of the four member towns. Northfield closes the warrant for its May 6 meeting on March 25, giving the School Committee less than two weeks now to approve the proposed document if it is to happen this year. A possible vote on the new agreement is on the School Committee’s agenda for Thursday.
The potential closures of Warwick Community School and Leyden’s Pearl Rhodes Elementary School are less pressing, and decisions will definitely not happen Thursday. But the decision’s necessary legal circumstances are now expected to come together on Friday, making a decision likely to happen soon. Chairwoman Sue O’Reilly-McRae said that the subject would have to be discussed in advance.
The new district agreement that is being discussed was written by the HEART Committee (Honest Education and Retaining Trust), a group formed by the Pioneer district’s four member towns to evaluate long-term issues related to the school system.
The School Committee can make changes to the proposed agreement, and will then send it on to the district’s four member towns for inclusion in their spring town meetings. The document also has to be reviewed by each town’s legal counsel before the towns vote on it.
The proposed new agreement includes new rules for School Committee members, most notably a term limit of two consecutive four-year terms; a detailed protocol for closing schools; and a mechanism for a member town to withdraw from the district without dissolving the whole agreement. Last week the School Committee met with HEART Committee members and one of the consultants they worked with in writing the new agreement, who explained the major additions in the new document.
The meeting this Thursday will likely be a continuation of last week’s conversation, HEART Committee Chairwoman Michelle Giarusso said. HEART Committee members and one of their consultants will again be present.
After months of talk, school-closure decisions are now almost within reach. The School Committee’s authority to close schools is provided by special legislation, but it doesn’t go into effect until the district borrows money to cover its $450,000 deficit. District administrators now expect the loan to be finalized Friday.
If the committee ultimately does decide to close either Warwick Community School or Leyden’s Pearl Rhodes Elementary School or both, the district’s financial plan for the 2019-2020 school year will have to be changed. Either school closure would free up around $180,000 to $200,000 in the district’s budget, Pioneer Finance Director Tanya Gaylord estimates.
Last week the committee approved a budget that includes all four of the district’s elementary school’s remaining open. If the School Committee makes any school closures, Gaylord said it will likely be possible to approve a revised budget at the same meeting.
If the budget does have to be revised, Gaylord said that it should be done by mid-April. The School Committee’s next regularly scheduled meeting is April 11, so school closure decisions could be made then. Or, a special meeting could be scheduled. Chairwoman O’Reilly McRae said that there is no plan either way yet, but that it will be discussed Thursday.
School Committee members have suggested that some of the potentially freed-up money could be used to restore some of the positions that had to be cut in the recently approved budget.
Particularly, several committee members were open to the option of restoring the middle-high school’s Dean of Students Cathy Hawkins-Harrison, whose job was cut in the currently proposed budget. Since the budget was prepared, Principal Jean Bacon has announced that she will be leaving the school at the end of June. Keeping Hawkins-Harrison “would be a continuity in the building that I think would be really helpful,” Committee Chairwoman Sue O’Reilly-McRae said.
Even so, any school closures would most likely lead to lower final costs to the towns, School budget Subcommittee Chairman Mike Townsley said. The currently proposed budget of $14,272,210 represents an increase to the towns’ costs of 1.65 percent over this year’s costs. Townsley said that with a school closure, it could go as low as 1 percent.
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.