TURNERS FALLS — The Gill-Montague Regional School District School Committee shared its desire this week to be open-minded, but neutral, regarding efforts to regionalize with the Pioneer Valley Regional School District and Warwick Community School.
Six Town Regionalization Planning Board Chair Alan Genovese and Vice Chair Greg Snedeker presented information on the regionalization proposal to members of the School Committee, but members did not vote on whether to recommend regionalization. It represented the first time the Gill-Montague committee has had the topic as a formal agenda item since the Regionalization Planning Board began its public outreach this fall, even though the anticipated fall vote on a regional agreement has been postponed, per a recommendation from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
If a regional agreement for the proposed district is approved by Gill, Montague, Bernardston, Leyden, Northfield and Warwick, it would establish a new, merged district and start the 18-month transition period. The new combined district would have around 1,500 students between preschool and 12th grade across eight buildings.
The information presented reiterated the goals of regionalization in mitigating the impact of declining enrollment to improve student education and experience. The Regionalization Planning Board representatives emphasized that enrollment at Gill-Montague and Pioneer has been declining since the 1990s, with a 48% decline since its peak.
To make the case for why regionalization makes sense, Genovese and Snedeker detailed the opportunity for more class options for high school students, more staff collaboration, more use of existing school space, increased social opportunities for students and greater support for special education students through increased staffing, among others.
“We must continue to explore options and opportunities to provide our students with high-quality and quantity of educational opportunities and experience,” Snedeker told the School Committee. “And speaking from experience, that is really difficult to do, especially [as] middle and high school begins to shrink.”
Genovese shared with the School Committee that, come the spring, the Regionalization Planning Board would like to see the regional agreement vote as a ballot question for all six towns rather than a Town Meeting vote, providing time for people to vote during polling hours rather than being limited to attending a Town Meeting to make their choice.
Before the Gill-Montague School Committee’s discussion, the two other school committees representing the schools involved in this regionalization proposal both voted not to recommend regionalization.
Under the regionalization plan, high school students from the six towns would be educated at the existing Turners Falls High School and Great Falls Middle School. Middle schoolers would occupy Pioneer Valley Regional School and elementary students would remain in their current buildings. The Regionalization Planning Board has said there is no plan for teacher reductions, but central administration positions would be consolidated.
On Thursday, Oct. 16, the Pioneer School Committee voted 5-1 not to recommend regionalization, with Chair Melissa Gerry citing concerns that regionalization would not be in the best interest of its students.
The Warwick Community School also voted not to recommend regionalization on Wednesday, Oct. 8, in a 4-1 decision, with Genovese being the only “yes” vote. Residents emphasized their desire to maintain their district’s identity and curriculum.
Notably, Warwick withdrew from Pioneer after the Pioneer School Committee voted in 2020 to close the Warwick Community School, and formed an independent school district to reopen its elementary school. This municipal designation has created added difficulty for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. DESE, in a letter, shared with the Regionalization Planning Board that the regional agreement between two districts and a municipal school is “unlike other school district regionalization.”
Although two of the three involved school committees have voted to take a stance, Gill-Montague did not vote. Discussion regarding these votes taken by other committees was critical, with School Committee member Heather Katsoulis saying she felt the decision to take a stance was “pretty irresponsible.”
“I’m not on the Selectboard, which more represents the entire town than does the School Committee, so I just want everyone to realize that this is a town issue,” Katsoulis said, emphasizing that the vote is up to the townspeople.
Additionally, members shared their perspectives on the response by Pioneer officials to regionalization. School Committee member Wendy Thompson said she feels the response has been “shortsighted,” based on the “negative information” being shared by Pioneer officials around regionalization, rather than what good could come of it for students.
“The information coming out over there is very negative, and [Katsoulis] is exactly right. This is a town decision,” Thompson said. “However, if no one is talking about the good things that this whole thing could do, they’re only hearing that, and that does not serve our children and their education.”
Although Gill-Montague School Committee members disagreed with the “no” votes taken by the other committees, discussion also reflected the committee wanting to act as a source of information sharing, and to be open to the conversation as it progresses.
School Committee member Steven Ellis said that regardless of a vote taken by the committee at any point, he sees the School Committee as a source of information sharing and a place for conversation. He added he’d like to see a future conversation with Business and Operations Director Joanne Blier about the financial impact on the community.
“I’m certainly hopeful that whether we ever take a vote on this or not, that we view ourselves as a channel through which citizens in Gill and Montague, and elsewhere, can become informed,” Ellis said, “because I think this group is open to true, honest, real conversations about what our kids need, what our schools need.”