Plans for a new PreK-12, six-town regional school district is not the best path for Warwick.
It is ill-timed; Warwick Community School just started its fourth year after being shut down by the Pioneer Valley Regional School District Committee during the COVID-19 pandemic. Warwick citizens worked tirelessly to create a new district and reopen WCS. Warwick Community School has a strong, individualized, project-based curriculum that supports diverse learners, is exciting to students, and with a focus on nature, the environment, and nourishing the whole child. The school’s enrollment has more than tripled in four years to more than 75 students. Parents like what their children experience in our school.
If we join in forming the Great Falls Regional School District, we stand to lose our unique curriculum and programming — the new superintendent would have control. It stands to reason that our program could be drastically changed over time, not by Warwick citizens. And, there is a strong trend to standardize curriculum across regional district schools. Both would likely decrease our school’s current vitality and enrollment.
If we join the proposed district, we would have one seat on a 13-member regional school committee, losing autonomy over every aspect of our elementary school, period. The Warwick School Committee has five elected members, all town residents, and has proactive, working relationships with the Warwick Selectboard and Finance Committee.
Though there is a process to guard against frivolous decisions to close schools, the truth is that the district would be in control of whether WCS stays open. The regional agreement says the Regional School Committee can start a school-closure process “anytime at the discretion of the Committee.” It does not require low enrollment.
If we join the six-town district, the cost of educating our children would likely not decrease by the amounts projected by the Six Town Regionalization Planning Board, and may not decrease at all. Writer Alan Genovese stated in a Sept. 17 column that the Great River District would “protect elementary schools from harmful cuts” and “create more value for your tax dollar by spreading costs over more students and towns.” [“The Great River Regional School District advantage“.] Regionalizing does not create more money; any administrative efficiencies would be a drop in the bucket toward lowering costs. We have all heard stories about painful cuts in elementary schools in regional school districts.
There is a lack of credible information to determine what Warwick’s cost of education would be under the proposed district. Warwick’s Finance Committee has looked closely at the projections published on 6towns.org that would feed into Warwick’s share, and has reported them unrealistic, including not properly considering transportation costs, capital expenses and projected savings. Many unknowns might push Warwick’s share higher than the WSD current projected budgets.
If we join in forming the six-town district, our middle school students would go to Pioneer and our high school students to Turners Falls High School. Mr. Genovese’s other argument (My Turn, Sept. 17) in favor of the new six-town regional school district is to “produce more opportunities/benefits for our students.” In fact, there would be fewer options than Warwick students have now. The Warwick School Committee has negotiated favorable tuition agreements for grades 7-12 with both the Pioneer and the Mahar Regional School Districts. Currently, Warwick students attend both PVRS and Mahar. Chances for attending Four Rivers Charter Public School or Franklin County Technical School would remain the same.
If we join in forming the six-town district, we lose the ability to seek grant funding just for WCS. One school cannot seek grant funding for itself in a regional school district. Though not to be relied upon for school operations, grant funds won by the Warwick School District have helped the school add to its capacity to expand and strengthen its curriculum, including teacher training in reading instruction, strong social-emotional supports for students to be more available for learning, no-cost meals, and a new, natural materials playground.
I am not against Warwick joining a regional school district; just the opposite. But such a plan must clearly benefit Warwick’s children and not force us to give up control over our elementary school. The Warwick School Committee has voted to vigorously explore other options. One is to join a secondary regional school district with independent elementary schools (such as Mahar RSD).
If, in the future, Warwick decides it would be advantageous to join the proposed Great River district, the agreement outlines a process to apply at that time.
It’s not now or never for Warwick!
Louise Doud is an educator and longtime resident of Warwick, and serves on the Warwick School Committee.