I am writing on behalf of the Regional Agreement Amendment Committee (RAAC) to give you an update on our work and to encourage you to attend the upcoming special and regular town meetings in our three towns.
Great Barrington Special Town Meeting:
January 26, 2017 – 6:00 pm – Monument Mountain Regional High School
West Stockbridge Special Town Meeting:
February 13, 2017 – 6:00 pm – West Stockbridge Town Hall
Stockbridge Regular Town Meeting:
May 15, 2017 – 6:30 pm – Stockbridge Town Hall
The Berkshire Hills Regional School District was formed on April 8, 1965 through the creation of our Regional Agreement. That agreement was updated in 1977, 1979 and 1990. In 2016, a committee was formed with citizens from our three towns to once again review and update the Agreement. They met for more than a year, and worked with Consultants from the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS) and contacts from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education MA DESE). The committee unanimously approved a revised agreement, sent it to the School Committee which did the same, and to the State for its review and feedback.
Below is the link to the District’s Webpage where you may find the Proposed Agreements – one showing the edits that were made and one showing the clean, final document. https://www.bhrsd.org/bhrsd-proposed-regional-agreement/
The Committee had three Chairs: Bill Fields, Mark Sprague and Lou Oggiani and included the following members:
Great Barrington
At-Large
Chip Elitzer
Carolyn Ivory
Dave Benham
School Committee
Richard Dohoney
Bill Fields
Select and Finance
Dan Bailly
Michael Wise
Stockbridge
At-Large
Mark Sprague
Bronly Boyd
Fred Rutberg
School Committee
Dan Weston
Select and Finance
Chuck Gillett
Jay Bikofsky
West Stockbridge
At-Large
Alan Thiel
Henry Baldwin
Lou Oggiani
School Committee
Kristen Piasecki
Select and Finance
Curt Wilton
Andrew Krouss
As the Committee worked on the Regional Agreement, the members focused on three main areas:
- Removing inaccurate or outdated language
- Complying with State laws, regulations and practices, and
- Reworking the assessment formula for capital projects.
The first two are self-explanatory. The last item warrants additional description.
The Committee proposed shifting how debt for future capital projects is assessed. Currently, capital projects are assessed based on October 1 student enrollment. Each town pays its share based on its percentage of students. The revised formula is based on equalized valuation. Each towns assessed value would become the basis for each town’s allocation for capital projects. Operating budgets would continue to be assessed as they are now based upon October 1 student enrollment.
Please reach out to RAAC members or me, if you have questions and please plan on attending your town meeting.
