Editor’s note: This article was originally published with several sections missing on Tuesday, June 18. The article has been updated with the missing sections now posted.
Berkshire County — Towards the end of its regular meeting on Tuesday, July 18, members of the Eight Town School District Regional Planning Board voted to recommend the merger of the Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire regional school districts.
The board has been reviewing plans for a potential merger for over three years, with its first meeting back in March 2020.
If completed, the merger would create a new combined high school in Great Barrington for grades 9 through 12, while maintaining the existing elementary and middle schools (grades Pre-K through 8) as they are.
The vote came towards the end of a two-hour-long meeting where members reviewed a draft regional agreement, and also voted on the timeline of the school district’s merger, including a timeline for when a merged district would be operational.
At the beginning of the meeting, the board reviewed portions of a draft regional agreement.
A regional agreement must be approved by the members of the board, which would then send the agreement to residents at special town meetings for approval.
Originally, the regional agreement was scheduled to be reviewed and approved by the board before this year’s annual town meetings, which did not happen.
In introducing a discussion of the draft, Project Manager Jake Eberwein apologized to members of the board “…for the fact that you’re receiving materials as late as you’re receiving them, particularly [the draft] regional agreement.”
“We were asked to speak in conference with [the state’s] Department of Education yesterday,” Eberwein said. “We made a decision not to send out a regional agreement [draft] that could have additional edits [by the time of the July 18 meeting]. We wanted to make sure you have the most up-to-speed and accurate draft.”
Eberwein proceeded to speak to the board about two potential timelines for when the merged district could start its operations.
The first timeline proposed would be for the merged school districts to start operations in July 2025, which would be in three fiscal years.
Eberwein also offered an alternative timeline where the school district would start its operations in July 2026, which would be in four fiscal years.
Eberwein said that currently, state statutes would only allow a transition period of two fiscal years.
“But in conversations with the Department of Education, they said that this could be potentially changed either through special legislation or through a waiver through the department,” Eberwein said. “The feedback we’re getting either directly or indirectly from our Department of Education liaisons is that this is not a bad idea. They’re open to it, and they’re open to supporting whatever the board and the community feels is the most appropriate approach. They just wanted us to understand that there will be a process to extend that timeframe.”
Eberwein said that there would be several benefits and detriments to having the school district open on July 1, 2026.
“On the plus side would be the ability to invest and focus on the planning and design for the new high school, between the [regional] agreement vote and the [bond] vote,” Eberwein said. “There would also be a longer runway to prepare for the significant work that will need to occur to merge the districts.”
Eberwein said that detriments would include three school committees, including the Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire regional school district committees and the merged district committee, all operating in a transitional period for a significantly longer length of time.
He said this could constrain long-range planning, complicate multi-year grant applications, and might be confusing to the public over an extended period.
Board Vice Chair Peter Taylor from Great Barrington made the motion to have the school district operational on July 1, 2026, pending approval by the state, which was seconded by Bonnie Silvers of Sheffield and the Southern Berkshire Regional School District Committee.
“The longer period allows the new transition committee and whatever staff is necessary to focus on the most important matter at hand in the front end of the process, which is focusing on the educational and building design of the new high school,” Taylor said. “It should fully meet the opportunities and needs of the merged school district. When you think about the other aspects of this merged district, really the shining star is going to be this new high school and the educational opportunities that it’s going to afford our students. There’s a lot of work that the transition committee is going to need to do to build off our educational quality work and to formulate it into a way that it can influence the building design.”
Eventually, the board passed the motion, with members James DiPisa, and George McGurn from Egremont both abstaining and Thomas Berkel from Egremont the only board member to vote against the motion.
Toward the end of the meeting, Nadine Hawver of the Sheffield Selectboard made a motion that the committee recommend a merger of the school districts.
Hawver’s motion included that a presentation of the final version of the regional agreement must be made at the next committee meeting, which has not been scheduled as of press time.
The motion was seconded by West Stockbridge Town Administrator Marie Ryan, while Silvers promptly spoke against the motion.
“Given the amount of time we have had to look this over, not even having 24 hours to digest this, I am completely against taking a vote at this point,” Silvers said.
“I’m not just against taking a vote, I’m still recovering from the first sentence of Nadine’s motion,” McGurn said. “I did not expect or anticipate this motion.”
Committee member Jonathan Sylbert of Monterey supported the motion.
“I think we’ve all worked very hard on this,” Sylbert said. “Although there were a few bumps in the road, I think everybody has had ample opportunity to understand what we’ve been doing. It’s been a moving target at times, but I’m going to support this motion.
“I have been under the impression for the last two or three meetings that we were hoping to put this to a vote by the end of July,” Hawver said. “This has been discussed at many of our meetings. That is why I was prepared to make a motion tonight if the revisions that were presented were passed.”
The motion was passed to recommend the merger.
However, Silvers, and committee member James DiPisa from Egremont both voted against the motion, while McGurn abstained.
Correction: Originally, Eberwein was quoted as saying that state statutes would only allow a transition period of three fiscal years. State statutes currently allow a transition period of two fiscal years. The Berkshire Edge regrets the error.
