Overview:
Franklin County school districts and towns are participating in a week of rural school advocacy action from March 9 to 13, calling for state support for rural schools that are struggling with underfunding and policy inaction. The week of action is organized by school committee members and municipal officials who are demanding that the state fund rural school aid at $60 million.
As rural schools struggle to secure effective state support, school districts and officials in Franklin and Hampshire counties are participating in a week of rural school advocacy action beginning on Monday, March 9.
The Rural and Declining Enrollment Schools Week of Action is a statewide effort to call for state support of rural schools that are “sounding the alarm about the destructive consequences of underfunding and policy inaction,” according to an announcement from Sen. Jo Comerford’s office.
The week of action “is being organized by school committee members and municipal officials who have long called for the state to fully fund rural school aid at $60 million, while also demanding that the state pass the 2022 policy recommendations outlined in the [Special Commission on Rural School Districts’ report] — provisions that would help both rural schools and school districts with chronically declining enrollment,” the statement from Comerford’s office continues.
Organizers include Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee Chair and Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Rural Schools Committee Co-Chair Martha Thurber, Mohawk Trail Superintendent Sheryl Stanton, Sunderland School Committee Chair and MASC Rural Schools Committee Co-Chair Jessica Corwin, Deerfield Selectboard member Tim Hilchey and Carolyn Shores Ness, formerly of the Deerfield Selectboard.
In Franklin County, participating schools and districts include Erving Elementary School, the Frontier Regional and Union 38 School District, the Gill-Montague Regional School District, the Greenfield School Department, the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont regional school districts, Rowe Elementary School, the Pioneer Valley Regional School District and Warwick Community School.
Civics students at Mohawk Trail will visit the State House on Monday to share their concerns about school funding. On Tuesday, members of the Shutesbury community will encircle Shutesbury Elementary School, and on Wednesday, fifth graders at Shelburne-Buckland Elementary School will visit the State House to advocate for rural aid. Lastly, the Frontier Student Council will lead a school rally for rural aid on Thursday next week.
In many of these schools, declining enrollment and insufficient state funding have created increasingly difficult conditions for schools. The fiscal year 2027 budgets in many districts are working with low preliminary Chapter 70 aid estimates, while expenses continue to mount, especially in health insurance costs for staff.
This financial impact is tied to the declining enrollment many districts experience. The Special Commission on Rural School Districts’ 2022 report found that while statewide enrollment dropped by 3.8% from 2010 to 2019, Franklin County’s enrollment decreased by 20.8%, with some individual districts facing even steeper declines.
The commission also declared that an increase of at least $60 million in rural school aid is required to adequately fund these districts. However, the Legislature has never appropriated the full amount. Appropriations have increased slightly, peaking at $16 million in FY25 and dropping back to $12 million in FY26.
In a statement, Corwin said that in 2022, the commission found that it costs 23% more per student to give basic education in a small, rural school district than it does in a district with more than 1,300 students.
“This disparity has never been accounted for in Chapter 70 funding formulas, leading to grave inequities in academic offerings in rural schools,” Corwin said.
According to FY26 Chapter 70 data, the average amount of Chapter 70 aid awarded to any Franklin County school receiving aid was nearly $2.8 million, whereas the average award across schools in the state was $19.68 million. Total spending from the state was $7.36 billion. Already, schools are looking at insufficient Chapter 70 aid heading into FY27, with preliminary estimates showing a 3.3% increase from FY26.
For rural school aid, the state is offering a preliminary estimate of $20 million, an increase of about $8 million over FY26, but still $40 million short of the $60 million that was recommended by the Special Commission on Rural School Districts.
“When rural schools are continually underfunded, it is rural superintendents and their staff members who are on the front lines — trying to do more and more with less and less,” Stanton said in a statement about the impact of limited school funding.
These staff members, Stanton continued, are feeling the impact of inadequate support from state aid, as schools are in the process of making difficult budgetary choices.
As the FY27 budget process continues, schools have made difficult choices to cut staff, both in teaching and non-teaching roles. Franklin County Technical School is anticipating cutting six staff members in both teaching and non-teaching roles for the first time in decades. At Mohawk Trail, the School Committee approved a $28.9 million budget that required cutting 6.5 teaching positions and 12 paraprofessionals. On Thursday, the Frontier Regional School District School Committee approved a $13.76 million budget that cuts seven positions, including the librarian.
“Our School Committee just voted to eliminate Frontier Regional School’s librarian to save money. When school expenses make up almost 70% of the entire municipal budget, barring major school funding increases from the state, the wheels are going to come off the bus,” Tim Hilchey of the Deerfield Selectboard said in a statement.
Town officials, like Hilchey, are also stepping up to support the week of action.
As part of its municipal action, Montague has planned to send letters to the State House, including one in support of S.314, “An Act to Provide a Sustainable Future for Rural Schools,” filed by Comerford and former state Rep. Natalie Blais. At least Gill and Bernardston have also signed letters of support.
This legislation includes a number of provisions to support rural schools, including codifying the Rural School Aid Fund that would get $60 million per year from the state’s general fund. Priority would be given to schools serving the fewest students per square mile. Other provisions include reform for equitable representation by requiring a western Massachusetts representative to sit on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to make annual recommendations for adjustments to the rural school aid calculation for improved equity.
Montague Selectboard member Marina Goldman shared an image with the Greenfield Recorder of town officials holding an SOS sign, meant to signify “Save Our Schools,” which is part of the language used for this week of action. The Selectboard agreed on Monday to send the letter in support of S.314, but also additional letters to advocate for the state to open rural school aid to vocational schools, like Franklin Tech.
To sign up to participate in the Rural and Declining Enrollment Schools Week of Action, visit tinyurl.com/35nyrf4p.