Berkshire County — In late December, the Eight Town Regional School District Planning Board received a $125,000 grant from the state’s Division of Local Services Community Compact program. The intent of the program is to provide financial support for municipalities and school districts that are exploring initiatives for efficiency, which includes regionalization.
According to Board Chairman Lucy Prashker, the funds will be used to support the board’s continued study on the potential merger of the Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire Regional School Districts. “This will help us get through the additional work that needs to be done,” Prashker told The Berkshire Edge. “There needs to be additional consultant work. Currently, our consultants are now primarily doing financial modeling using different assessment methodologies.”
Prashker said that the funds will also be used for the board’s community outreach and engagement. “Community outreach is critical,” she said. “At the end of the day, this will be a decision that is going to be made by the voters in each of the eight-member towns. The better informed these are, the better the decision will be. This is why we must get accurate information out in a form that is digestible and accessible to as many of the voters in the eight-member towns as we possibly can.” She added that some of the funds for the grant will also be used for educational visioning work, which is a process of determining long-term planning for a school district.
Prashker said that she believes the board has made substantial progress on putting together a merger agreement. “The members of the board have reached agreements on some of the most important issues that need to be addressed in the agreement, including school committee member composition and how school committee members are elected,” she said. “The next big step is to reach an agreement on assessment methodologies for operating costs, capital costs for the construction of a new high school in Great Barrington, and other capital costs going forward.”
Prashker said that she believes that the board would be voting on a finished merger agreement at some point next month. The agreement would have to be approved by voters at each of the eight annual town meetings for the merged school district to be created. “I think that it’s important that we finish the study that the eight-member town select boards asked us to complete three years ago,” she said. “We are nearing that point and this grant will allow us to complete this work. This grant will make it possible for us to continue the work until October.”
