WARWICK — Items related to Warwick’s exit from the Pioneer Valley Regional School District top the eight-article warrant for Monday’s Special Town Meeting.
The meeting will be held in the former Warwick Community School gymnasium starting at 7 p.m.
Town Coordinator David Young said these school-related items, Articles 1 and 2, were the primary impetus for scheduling the Town Meeting. Other articles, he said, may be passed over and could be revisited at a later date.
Article 1 would authorize the Selectboard “to enter a long-term and renewable contract … that recognizes and defines the annual settlement of Warwick’s portion of the regional school district’s pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) attributable to Warwick’s former membership.” Article 2 would rescind Warwick’s membership requirement for the district’s scholarship committee by amending a 1973 Special Town Meeting decision.
The Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee voted in January 2020 to close Warwick Community School as a cost-saving measure, a decision that state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley approved in May 2020. Since then, members of the Warwick Education Committee have met to develop plans with the goal of reopening the school. Recently, Pioneer officials approved the three agreements necessary for the Warwick Community School to transition out of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District.
“(Roughly around) 2019, our town started realizing this regional district was no longer a good fit for Warwick for several reasons, including: other towns starting to decide what was best for Warwick children, regional administrators publicly taking action against a Warwick school committee member (and) disagreements about how our student tuition costs were being framed to support ending our town’s school program,” Susan Hollins, senior consultant for Warwick’s Rural School Redesign team, contextualized on the team’s website.
Although not necessarily imminent, Article 7 would entail the greatest expense outlined in the warrant. Approval would authorize funding to acquire a new 2023 Ford Interceptor Utility police cruiser. While no funding amount is cited on the warrant, the vehicle’s unit price is listed as $44,452 by emergency equipment vendor MHQ. The necessary equipment to convert the vehicle into a police cruiser would likely cost an additional $20,000, Young added. The money would likely come from Warwick’s stabilization fund.
The Warwick Police Department acquired a 2013 Ford Interceptor cruiser from Gill this fall to replace what Chief David Shoemaker described as a more “tired” 2013 cruiser. Warwick would not have the 2023 vehicle in hand for at least two years, should it be funded at Monday’s Special Town Meeting, according to Young. Which cruiser it would replace would be determined at the time of acquisition.
Articles 3 through 5 entail ethics exemptions for those with Selectboard affiliation. Articles 4 and 5 particularly pertain to conflicts of interest between Selectboard affiliation and compensated work within Warwick’s planned independent school district.
Article 6 involves approving payment of prior-year bills mistakenly left unpaid by Young. Lastly, Article 8 entails transferring an undetermined sum of money from Warwick’s $211,515 free cash fund to the town’s stabilization fund.
The full warrant can be downloaded and viewed at bit.ly/3W0kqcH.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.
WarwickSTMWarrant121222 by Julian Mendoza on Scribd