ORANGE — The subcommittee tasked with considering potential changes to the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District’s regional agreement is beginning to strategize how to reach its objective.
Legal counsel Adam Dupere met with members in Mahar’s library and media center on Thursday to outline some of his suggested tweaks to the regional agreement, which was signed in the 1950s. He said he plans to have more substantial suggestions at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Sept. 23.
“This is the start of what I anticipate will be a long discussion,” said Patricia Smith, who chairs the subcommittee.
The Regional Agreement Subcommittee consists of one School Committee member from each member town and one person appointed by the Selectboard of each member town. Elizabeth Zielinski, superintendent of the Ralph C. Mahar Regional and Union 73 school districts, and Michele Tontodonato, the school districts’ director of finance and operations, serve on the subcommittee as non-voting members.
To start, research into the populations of the four member towns — Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham — was suggested.
Zielinski proposed looking into the 2020 U.S. Census results for that information. She mentioned she had served as a census worker in 2020 because she became superintendent that July and she thought the work would combine fresh air and exercise with getting to know her new community.
Subcommittee member Chris Woodcock, of Orange, mentioned that the 2020 information might no longer be accurate, as he knows his town’s population has increased significantly since then. The official U.S. Census is taken every 10 years.
The regional agreement has drawn the ire of Orange officials and residents, as their town carries roughly 75% to 80% of the regional district’s apportioned costs. Some in town have cited the regional agreement as the reason for repeated budget issues.
According to Tontodonato, the subcommittee will eventually vote on a new regional agreement to send to the Mahar School Committee. That committee, she said, will also have to vote on it, as will residents at a Town Meeting, before it goes to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval.
