MONTAGUE — Two panels were held Thursday to provide context and gauge public questions and opinions surrounding the prospect of merging the Gill-Montague Regional and Pioneer Valley Regional school districts.
The meetings, one for the general public at 5:15 p.m. and the other for the Selectboard and Finance Committee at 6:30 p.m., kicked off a series of focus group meetings.
During the general public meeting, Gill Selectboard Chair and Six Town Regionalization Planning Board member Greg Snedeker presented a slide show detailing potential pros and cons of regionalization and answered questions as they were posed by the virtual Zoom audience. He was accompanied by facilitator Mary Broderick, who made notes of attendees’ questions and comments to address in detail online at a later date.
In addition to providing figures that evidenced the magnitude of enrollment decline and Chapter 70 state funding insufficiencies, the slide show projected advantages and disadvantages of regionalization in two lists.
In terms of pros, Snedeker highlighted the potential of having a broadened singular school committee, a more cost-effective central administration, an expanded curriculum and more extra-curricular opportunities. Later in the meeting, he added that combining regions might result in a more ethnically diverse student body, arguing that they “need more culture.”
In terms of cons, Snedeker forecasted the potential loss of local control, difficulty controlling the curriculum, community financial disparities, differences in state reimbursement, real or perceived social differences, differences in educational goals and having to change school branding.
“These are all things that matter a lot to communities,” he said. “I also feel like resistance has changed. People fear what they don’t know.”
One of the topics the public voiced concern about during the meeting was the trend of students “choicing out,” or choosing to attend schools outside of their default residential district. The departure of students from a district results in funds following the student away from the school, a point Snedeker emphasized when addressing issues associated with School Choice.
“What you can’t fix with the budget is the critical mass of students you need to support the budget,” he said.
The presentation’s list of advantages suggested that improved programming made possible by merging the two school districts might help attract and retain students. Some, however, remained skeptical that this hypothesis should be relied upon.
“The assumption that improving programming will cause School Choice to drop … is just that: an assumption,” Six Town Regionalization Planning Board member Mike Naughton said.
Later in the meeting, Snedeker addressed concerns over projected annual Chapter 70 state aid being underwhelming.
Snedeker agreed with the notion that funding might not be up to par. He stressed, however, that the financial benefit of merging districts would come not from an increase in the budget, but from an ability to better allocate available funding.
“I don’t really expect a lot of savings,” Snedeker said. “I think the real question is, ‘What are you getting for your spending?’”
The 18-member Six Town Regionalization Planning Board was formed in fall 2019 “to study the fiscal and educational advisability of establishing a new regional school district,” according to the group’s website. The Gill-Montague school district was awarded a grant and contracted with The Abraham Group and the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS) to develop both enrollment and financial baseline data. An analysis of merging union contracts, health insurance and central office, among other related topics, also began.
The exploratory committee has previously explained that the vision for the new district would be to reorganize Pioneer Valley Regional School and Turners Falls High School, so that one would be a middle school and the other a high school. All the currently open elementary schools would remain unchanged.
As anticipated, no decisions were made at Thursday’s meeting.
“The results of all the focus groups and surveys will be collated and shared with the participants,” Broderick said toward the meeting’s conclusion. “What we’ll do is capture (stakeholder questions and comments) and reflect them back in a report.”
Montague has four focus group meetings on Monday, Nov. 22, to continue the discussion. There will be a meeting for middle and high school staff at 2:30 p.m., elementary school staff at 3:45, and the general public at 5:15 in Turners Falls High School’s auditorium. Additionally, the Gill-Montague School Committee will meet on Zoom at 6:30 p.m.
Bernardston, Gill, Leyden, Northfield and Warwick will also hold meetings in the first week of December. The full schedule, as well as Thursday’s meeting slideshow and other details, can be found at sites.google.com/view/strpb/.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.