ORANGE — As an ad hoc committee considers potential changes to the regional school district agreement amid an increasing financial burden on Orange, an attorney representing the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District outlined how the amendment process can be initiated by a regional school committee or a citizen’s petition.
Adam Dupere attended this month’s committee meeting to explain the process of tweaking a regional agreement and how an amendment goes into effect. A five-member ad hoc committee in Orange has been assembled to develop potential amendments to the existing Mahar regional agreement, which town officials and residents have blamed for budget woes in recent years.
Dupere, of Dupere Law Offices, explained that every regional school district agreement must address the school committee’s structure, the grades and programs the district will serve, how operating costs and debt will be shared among member towns, and the procedures for adopting the annual budget. He said an amendment can be initiated by a petition signed by at least 10% of a town’s registered voters.
According to Dupere, an amendment must be reviewed by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education once it is drafted. After any required revisions, the proposed amendment is submitted to each member municipality’s legislative body for approval. If the amendment involves adding or withdrawing members or changing grades served, each municipality must approve the amendment, and the state education commissioner will review and provide comment on compliance.
Orange is feeling the pinch of a bare-bones budget, which was adopted in June following a contentious three-night Annual Town Meeting. The Mahar School Committee voted in April to approve a 4% budget increase for the current school year despite being repeatedly asked to make more significant cuts in light of Orange’s financial situation. The assessment to Orange increased by 12.8%.
But Orange was committed to paying its Mahar assessment regardless of how residents voted on the overall FY26 budget because New Salem, Wendell and Petersham — the other towns in Mahar’s regional agreement — adopted the figures, with Orange being the final town to vote. A two-thirds majority of the towns is required for ratification of the Mahar budget.
Some in town cited the regional agreement as the reason for the repeated budget issues. In May, Selectboard member Jane Peirce said she wants to reexamine the formula used to determine the town’s Mahar contributions.
“We just can’t keep doing this. And we’re going to slam into a wall really soon, where we’re going to be looking at vital functions that are necessary to run the town and provide services, basic services, and we’re not going to be able to do it,” she said.
Her husband, Keith LaRiviere, who chairs the Orange Finance Committee, also voiced frustration with the $673,611 assessment in May.
“This is my personal opinion — if we cannot get a significant reduction of the increase requested by the regional school, I think we’re going to be in a situation where we are going to be having budget cuts to the rest of the departments in town by up to 15%,” he said. “And personally, I don’t think that we can sustain that kind of a situation, where every year, in order to accommodate schools, we have to keep cutting and cutting and cutting from every other department. If that trend continues, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the schools are going to bankrupt the town.”
The ad hoc committee, appointed on July 23 to develop potential revisions to the existing regional agreement, is comprised of Keith Washington, Bob Oelfke, former Town Moderator Christopher Woodcock, and Selectboard members Andrew Smith and Mike Bates.
Woodcock said the town assessment was the Selectboard’s breaking point.
“In their view, the magnitude of that increase is having a devastating impact on the town, the taxpayers, and the ability to adequately fund public safety, public works and other critical municipal services,” he said at the Mahar School Committee meeting last week. “From their perspective as elected municipal leaders, the very survival of the town is at risk if the current trajectory of rising costs for Orange from the Mahar assessment continues.”
Woodcock explained that some Selectboard members view withdrawal from the regional agreement as an option if efforts to control the Mahar assessment do not come to fruition.
Woodcock said the ad hoc committee has held four meetings. Smith and Bates told the Greenfield Recorder that the meetings have gone smoothly so far, and the only two options appear to be hefty modifications to the regional agreement or withdrawal from it.
“We have reviewed many other regional agreements, looking for applicable town-side budget-control provisions in those contracts that might be adapted as proposed amendments to the Mahar agreement,” Woodcock said.
He mentioned that the most recent ad hoc committee meeting included a preliminary discussion of various potential amendment proposals — some based on language found in other regional agreements and others on ideas formulated by committee members.
Woodcock also said that apart from the in-person committee meetings, he has had discussions with Christine Lynch from DESE’s Office of Regional Governance.