Grappling with low enrollment and a lack of state funding, Franklin County schools are pushing to cut costs by sharing services.
Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional School District Superintendent Michael Buoniconti will testify before the Education Committee at the Statehouse April 9 on a bill to increase rural school funding by adding a clause in the state education budget.
Part of Buoniconti’s testimony includes a request on behalf of county school districts for a new position – a transportation and shared services coordinator – who would work to consolidate special education bus routes and identify other strategies to share services. The job would cost $100,000: an $80,000 salary plus travel and benefits, and would report to a number of county school superintendents. If the proposal is approved by the state, the position ideally would be filled by July 1. The proposal was drafted by Buoniconti, who also leads the Mass. Rural Schools Coalition that currently includes 22 Western Mass. school districts. Established in 2016, the coalition seeks to explore ways to cut costs and advocate for rural schools.
School leaders originally agreed to propose creating two new “shared service” jobs. County superintendents decided at a March 20 meeting to propose creating a transportation coordinator and a shared service coordinator – set to cost $200,000 all up. But last week, Buoniconti suggested reducing the request from two jobs to one.
“It wasn’t really clear to me that it was a full-time job,” Buoniconti said. “There was not enough to keep somebody of that salary level busy.”
The county school superintendents also plan to share regular bus services. School business managers across the region have met monthly since 2008 to discuss sharing buses, Franklin Regional Council of Governments Executive Director Linda Dunlavy said last week. And after some work and several experiments, “they have been poised to make it actually work, with just an added boost,” Dunlavy said.
Western Massachusetts state representatives are fighting alongside school superintendents to increase funding for rural schools. State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, submitted a bill in January that would add a “rural school aid” section to the education budget, Chapter 70, to distribute $400 per pupil. Schools are eligible to apply for aid if their district has no more than 40 students per square mile and an average per capita income of less than 115 percent of the mean per capita income of the state. The Education Committee will hear Hinds’ rural school bill April 9.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.