NORTHFIELD — Decisions on whether to close Warwick Community School or Leyden’s Pearl Rhodes Elementary School or both are expected from the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee either this week or next.
The School Committee is set to thoroughly discuss the potential school closures this Thursday, 7 p.m. at the middle-high school in Northfield. If a final decision is not made that night, the committee will likely meet next week to decide, Chairwoman Sue O’Reilly-McRae said.
That the School Committee can consider school closures at all is the result of a unique legal situation that didn’t line up until two weeks ago. But the option of closing Pioneer’s two smaller elementary schools has been discussed since last spring, when the district discovered it had a financial deficit of then-unknown size, now known to be worth about $450,000.
That summer the district hired a new superintendent and a new business manager, and in the November election five of the twelve School Committee members were replaced. The new administration and committee generally understand the deficit to be symptomatic of an unsustainable business model, rather than an isolated case of mismanagement.
Likewise the school closures are being looked at as a way of economizing the whole district. The discussion among committee members and administrators has largely focused on whether the increased financial efficiency is worth the loss, and how to integrate Leyden’s and Warwick’s elementary students into the two relatively larger elementary schools in Northfield and Bernardston.
Town officials and residents in Warwick and Leyden have suggested that the loss of their schools would have long-term and potentially negative impacts on the towns. Some, notably including all three of Warwick’s selectmen, have said that the effects on the town would be decidedly negative and would far outlast whatever gains the school district makes.
Legally, the school closures are allowed under special state legislation set up especially for Pioneer last summer, after the deficit was discovered. The deal is that Pioneer can borrow money to cover its deficit but must also work with a financial overseer – paid by Pioneer, chosen by the state Department of Education – to fix its structural problem.
As part of that, the legislation suspends the section of Pioneer’s inter-town agreement that guarantees each town its own elementary school. If the School Committee determines that closing a school would meaningfully improve the district’s business model, it can do it.
The reason this is happening now rather than earlier is that the terms of the legislation didn’t go into effect until the district had its borrowed money in-hand. The meeting for this Thursday was set at the School Committee’s March 14 meeting in expectation of the loan being finalized March 15, which went through as expected.
If a school is closed, it will affect the towns’ budgets for next year. The budget Pioneer is currently proposing, which accounts for all four elementary schools remaining open, calls for a 1.65-percent increase in the towns’ payments. That’s lower than it has been in recent years, district administrators point out, but it’s still higher than the 0-percent increase the towns had requested.
If a school closes, that increase could go as low as 1 percent over this year’s payments, even accounting for hiring new staff to accommodate merging ofthe elementary schools, School Budget Subcommittee Chairman Mike Townsley said.
Town officials, for their part, feel firmly that any money that is freed up by a closure should be seen as a reduction to the towns’ costs — not as available funds for the schools — and that the revised budget should reflect that.
“We would like a little recognition that we’re losing a body part,” said Leyden Selectboard Chairman Bill Glabach at a joint meeting of the four towns’ selectboards and finance committees on March 18. “I’d hate to see it go for nothing.”
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.