WARWICK — Residents gave a show of support at a Special Town Meeting to pursue elementary education outside the Pioneer Valley Regional School District should their town elementary school be closed.
The meeting saw 90 residents, including members of the Selectboard, Finance Committee and Warwick Education Advisory Committee, fill Town Hall for Monday’s meeting.
“The vote means the town has taken the first step to leaving the district with respect to local elementary,” said Town Coordinator David Young.
The vote would withdraw students in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. This change wouldn’t be made until July 2021, Young said, when a new district agreement takes effect — if ratified at the member towns’ Annual Town Meetings in May.
Warwick officials said they needed to vote to leave the district now before the agreement takes hold.
“This vote was taken because of the timing,” Young explained. “The proposed agreement allows the other members to vote to not let a town leave. And it provides that the district can close a community school.”
The decision comes after months of discussion among residents, the Selectboard, the Education Advisory Committee and Pioneer School Committee. The School Committee voted 7 to 5 in January to recommend the Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley close Warwick Community School.
Tom Wyatt, vice chair of the Education Advisory Committee, said he and members of the committee will meet with Riley and members of his office Monday, March 9, to discuss their petition to keep the elementary school open. If Riley acts on the School Committee’s recommendation, the closure of Warwick Community School would be effective June 30.
“We’re looking for time to find a solution,” Young said.
Education Advisory Committee Chair Adam Holloway reiterated the committee’s concern with bussing young students down a “dangerous road” with poor cellphone reception and few houses to attend the Northfield Elementary School.
According to Young, the point of the town’s petition is to keep the local school open as part of the district for another couple of years until it has its own model in place and is ready to leave. By voting Monday, the town gave its approval to continue researching a new school model for the future.
“It is a two- or three-year process to leave the district even in part,” Young said. “There is no way we can leave the district by the start of the next school year. It is absolutely impossible. It is, as well, not desirable.”
While Warwick has been preparing for the upcoming meeting with Riley, the Bernardston and Leyden selectboards both sent letters to Riley, supporting the Pioneer School Committee’s recommendation to close Warwick Community School and have students attend Northfield Elementary. The letter from the Bernardston Selectboard cites last year’s closure of Pearl Rhodes Elementary School in Leyden.
“That closure came about due to declining enrollment,” the letter reads. “Restructuring our district is needed to continue the quality of public education that the Pioneer Valley district offers to its students in our four towns. … The students have little, if any, concern with the buildings they attend.”
The letter states students enjoy the larger class sizes from merging the Leyden and Bernardston elementary schools, and that parents and caregivers have also “embraced the move … due largely to better services and more programs for their children.” The letter says more programs can be offered “without the added burden of costs incurred due to buildings that are no longer a necessity, with their associated low enrollment.”
Pioneer Superintendent Jonathan Scagel declined to comment when contacted Wednesday.
A separate article Monday saw the town approve $12,349 to pay Warwick’s share of the superintendent’s salary. A previous Town Meeting unanimously voted not to fund the superintendent’s five-year contract, but Young said the contract is still in place and therefore the town acknowledges it must pay its share. This article passed by unanimous voice vote.
“A deal’s a deal,” Young said simply.
A third article asked residents’ permission to transfer $40,000 — to be under the control of the Selectboard — to help cover operating expenses at Warwick Community School for fiscal year 2021. It passed by majority.
Funding for both of these two articles comes from Warwick’s stabilization fund. This savings account balance will be restored from free cash at Annual Town Meeting in May.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com
or 413-930-4579.