CHARLEMONT — With the entire Hawlemont Regional School District School Committee having stepped down in April, the six new members have been getting their bearings before tackling strategic planning for the school district.
The new members have met twice so far.
“Getting up to speed is the biggest challenge,” commented School Committee member Anne Kaplan.
“We are going through the agenda slowly,” added fellow committee member Liz Billings, “and asking a lot of questions to understand what we are agreeing to.”
Amid criticism by staff, faculty and residents angered by the former School Committee’s treatment of school staff members and its handling of the relationship with the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, all six former board members announced in April that they would resign or not run for reelection in May. Mohawk Trail School Committee members had expressed resistance to renewing the two-district agreement without a reorganization of Hawlemont’s School Committee.
Hawley residents Liz Billings, Peggy Travers and Ken Bersch were elected to join the committee during Hawley’s May 2 election. At Charlemont’s May 24 election, Anne Kaplan, Cheryl Handsaker and Elizabeth Van Iderstine were chosen to represent Charlemont. Handsaker had previously been appointed to the committee in April to fill Michael Walsh’s seat in the earliest of the resignations.
With the slew of new members in place, the board’s next meetings — including one planned for July 7 — will be completely educational.
Once elected to be part of a school committee in Massachusetts, each member must take a course with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC). Some of the new members attended a training with MASC in May; the remaining members will take the course in September. The training is exclusively in person, and comes to the area infrequently.
“Everyone is willing to soak in as much information as people are willing to give us,” said Billings. “We want to learn and try as much as we can.”
According to Kaplan, the former School Committee members have been helpful with the transition.
Ken Bertsch, who was chosen as chair, said of the new committee, “It is a good group and people are cooperative.”
There are two years of unapproved minutes the new members are now approving in their meetings, but once they get through this backlog and have an understanding of the procedural process, they will begin working toward larger ideas. Assistant Attorney General Sarah Monahan had contacted the former committee chair in April to inform him that the committee was in violation of Open Meeting Law by failing to approve minutes in a timely manner and failing to complete required certification forms.
Bertsch, Kaplan and Billings all said long-term sustainability of Hawlemont Regional School is the biggest concern they will face.
“We want to find a way to sustainably support the school,” Billings said. “That is important to us.”
All three members also mentioned transparency as their main goal for the board.
“Mutual respect will be important,” Kaplan added.
Bertsch noted that all the members were voted for by residents in high numbers. He argued this shows that the community trusts the new members in these positions. None of the six seats involved a contested race.
Kaplan explained she wants to get feedback from the community about their experiences at Hawlemont. She would especially like to poll the families who used School Choice to send their children to another school district.
“I would like to see Hawlemont be a great match to the majority of students that live in our town,” she said.
Bertsch said the committee is struggling to know how many students will stay at Hawlemont, particularly considering the decision by Heath to send its children to Colrain Central School instead of Hawlemont starting this fall.
While each member comes to the committee with ideas of their own, they have not had the opportunity to formulate goals as a group yet.
“Laying out the path forward, I assume that there will be some kind of strategic plan that looks at the current period and at the longer term,” Bertsch said of his expectations of the group’s first steps.
Billings, who has a child at Hawlemont herself, explained residents do not want the school to close, so the committee will work hard to keep the school financially viable.
“I would like to find more creative ways to fund the school, maybe with grants or volunteering opportunities,” Billings said. “Our biggest concern is monetary.”
“We haven’t grappled with most of the problems yet,” Bertsch said. “Half my hope is this board will be boring and without controversy.”
Contact Bella Levavi at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.