NORTHFIELD — If Leyden’s elementary students go to Bernardston Elementary School next year, is the town of Leyden partly responsible for the costs of maintaining Bernardston’s building? And who’s paying to heat Pearl Rhodes School if it isn’t being used as a school anymore?

With the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee and district administrators weighing options for closing Leyden’s and Warwick’s elementary schools, those kinds of questions are suddenly relevant. But the current inter-town agreement assumes that each town has its own elementary school, and so gives no answers.

Addressing that issue will likely be the last part of the HEART (Honest Education and Retaining Trust) Committee’s rewrite of the Pioneer district agreement, which has to be finished in time for the four towns to vote on it at their annual town meetings.

Basically there are two questions, the HEART Committee discussed at a meeting on Tuesday. If a town loses its elementary school, does the school district owe the town some compensation for the new financial burden of maintaining the building? And is a town without its own elementary school responsible for the capital costs of the school where it sends its pupils?

The committee came to a loose consensus that if a town gets a kickback from the district for losing its school, it should be responsible for some of the capital costs of the other town’s school.

Nothing was decided though. Instead the committee will wait until after the four towns’ selectboards and finance committees meet all together on Jan. 28, and to allow them to make a decision for themselves that can be reflected when the HEART Committee completes its new district agreement.

Technically, the current district agreement does not allow the district to close schools. But after an audit of the district last spring revealed a financial deficit now known to total about $450,000, state lawmakers intervened and gave the School Committee special authority to close schools if necessary.

The special legislation has been passed, but School Committee and district administrators recently found out that it does not go into effect until the district borrows money to cover its deficit. This has delayed a vote on school closures, which had been planned for January, back at least as far as March.

Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.