WARWICK — The town is set to form a new school district after the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) approved Warwick’s withdrawal from the Pioneer Valley Regional School District on Wednesday.
“This journey has taken nearly four years, hundreds of hours of meetings and literally hundreds of pages of documentation,” said Susan Hollins, senior consultant for Warwick’s Rural School Redesign team. “I’m elated that they accomplished their goals and I think Warwick will stimulate reconsideration in Massachusetts of the importance of rural schools in small towns for their communities.”
The state’s approval was announced in a letter sent by DESE Commissioner Jeffrey Riley to Selectboard Chair Brian Snell. This marks the final chapter of a multi-year effort to reestablish a school district in town, following dissatisfaction among Warwick residents regarding the town’s membership in the Pioneer Valley Regional School District. While Warwick’s departure from Pioneer does not officially go into effect until July 1, 2023, town officials have set their sights on forming a new school committee, a process that could begin as soon as the next Selectboard meeting.
“Now,” Snell said, “the work really starts.”
While the goal is to reopen the former Warwick Community School as an independent elementary school, the approved tuition agreement allows for Warwick students in grades seven through 12 to attend Pioneer Valley Regional School if they choose, with the town covering tuition costs.
Snell said if all goes as planned, Warwick Community School should reopen next fall in time for the 2023-2024 school year.
The Pioneer School Committee voted in January 2020 to close Warwick Community School as a cost-saving measure, a decision 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.
“(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,” Hollins contextualized on the Rural School Redesign website.
According to the website, the next chapter for the Warwick Community School would be place-based, meaning studies would be socially and environmentally relevant to Warwick. Officials plan for the elementary school to be very small. In addition to more traditional classroom learning where a teacher heads the class, there will be individualized plans for each student to learn on their own.
“A small school has the luxury of balancing group projects and learning with highly individualized instruction,” the website reads. “Multi-grade classrooms mean that students can advance to more challenging work when they are ready and also have the support they need to build their skills, regardless of their chronological age.”
In his letter to Snell, Riley praised Warwick’s reopening plan as “extensive” and indicative of Warwick’s ability to be “fully committed to serving all of Warwick’s students.” Expanding on this, Snell expressed confidence that having the Warwick Community School operating at full capacity again would benefit the broader community, too. The building is the “heart of the town,” he argued, serving as a communal gathering space.
“It’s a real step in the right direction for quality of life in communities to have a place in the center of town where people can meet,” he said.
At its core, though, “it’s all about the kids,” Snell said.
“There are other towns in the same situation,” Snell added. “It’s a lot of work, but I encourage them to look for innovative ways to get their schools reopened.”
Snell said he expects the Selectboard to release its own public statement to announce DESE’s decision soon. A public forum will follow to allow residents the opportunity to voice input before a new school committee is in place.
Warwick’s governance structure plan dictates that the founding school committee should be comprised of nine members. This will include one representative each from the Selectboard and Finance Committee, two parents who have been active on the Warwick Education Committee, a former Selectboard chair and a retired superintendent who is active in rural education initiatives, as well as three additional members selected by the community. The size of this committee accounts for the magnitude of work associated with establishing a new school district, Hollins explained. Members will serve three-year terms.
Once established, the school committee will be tasked with hiring district staff and faculty in advance of the coming school year. Hollins said they will also establish a “large standing advisory committee” of 15 to 20 people.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.