Southern Berkshire County — After more than three and a half years of meetings, the Eight Town Regional School District Planning Board approved a final school district regional agreement at its meeting on Tuesday, September 26.
The regional agreement is between the Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire regional school districts. The Berkshire Hills Regional School District includes Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge, while the Southern Berkshire Regional School District includes Monterey, New Marlborough, Sheffield, Alford, and Egremont.
At the Sept. 26 meeting, the school district regional agreement passed by a vote of 16 to five, with three board members not responding to the roll-call vote. The members who voted against the agreement were George McGurn and James DiPisa of Egremont, Kimberly Alcantara of Monterey, Nanci Worthington of New Marlborough, and Bonnie Silvers of Sheffield. DiPisa, Alcantara, Worthington, and Silvers are all members of the Southern Berkshire Regional School District Committee. The three board members who did not respond to the roll-call vote were Carl Stewart of Alford, Thomas Berkel of Egremont, and Andy Potter of West Stockbridge.
The next step in the process is for voters at special town meetings to approve the regional agreement. According to Planning Board Chair Lucy Prashker, the towns of Great Barrington, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, New Marlborough, Sheffield, and Alford have all scheduled special town meetings for Monday, October 23. However, Prashker said that the towns of Monterey and Egremont have not yet scheduled special town meetings.
According to the regional school district agreement, the district is scheduled to become fully operational by June 30, 2026, and at that point, both existing school districts will cease to operate. During the transition period, the transition committee and its member towns “shall vote to approve the debt for the new high school by the terms [of the agreement] and Massachusetts School Building Authority rules and regulations.” As part of the agreement, a new high school building would be built on the campus of Monument Mountain Regional High School. If the member towns fail to approve the debt for the new high school by June 30, 2025, the agreement will be terminated.
If the merger of both school districts goes to plan, a district school committee of 11 members will be formed. The committee would consist of three members from Great Barrington; two members from Sheffield; and one member each from Alford, Egremont, Monterey, New Marlborough, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge.
According to the merger agreement, 90 percent of the costs for a new school building would be undertaken by Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge, while the remaining 10 percent would be undertaken by the remaining towns. However, the merger agreement assumes that the Massachusetts School Building Authority would give the district up to 48.52 percent of costs for a new school building of up to $48.52 million, with potentially six percent of regional incentive aid of up to $6 million. The merger agreement does not include firm costs for a new high school building.
The final regional school district agreement can be found here.
