School districts: Time to decide on direction

Both Southern Berkshire Regional School District (SBRSD) and Berkshire Hills Regional School District (BHRSD) are facing inflection points. Our challenge is to find opportunities for positive outcomes.

The confluence of events in South County over the past five years includes recent election-related discussions about consolidating the district. It’s an opportune time since plans for BHRSD’s Monument Mountain Regional High School building are being addressed. New approaches need to be developed after the rejection of renovation plans in 2013 and 2014.

The entrance to Mt. Everett Regional High School in Sheffield, on the campus of the Southern Berkshire Regional School District.

Residents of both districts seem to agree that local elementary schools should remain “local.”  However, there appears to be support for creating a multi-district high school. Doing so would provide opportunities to harness broader external resources including Berkshire Community College, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, MCLA (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts).

What’s the hurry after five years of discussion?

Schools and towns launch their budget cycles in the fall and, by January, budgets are consolidated for public discussions. It would be an opportune time to propose a budget earmark of say, $50,000, to create alternative plans for change. This would represent a fraction of one percent of each district’s gross budget.

Rather than wait until February when budgets have been solidified, I suggest that residents in the towns involved make their opinions known to their school committees and select boards.

Decision making seems stalled on “resource sharing,” rather than consolidation. Consolidation provides unified coordination points and time schedules. Ultimately, consolidation delivers broader and more cost-efficient access to student resources with fewer layers of administrative costs.

Consider the work that supports some level of consolidation:

• Massachusetts State Auditor Suzanne Bump recently completed an extensive study on needed changes, including consolidation among regional school districts. Having been a long-time resident of Great Barrington, her recommendations are notably sensitive to rural issues that have loomed large.
• Over the past three years, the Berkshire County Education Task Force (BCETF) spent over $300,000 on consulting by reputable education specialists. Their July 2017 (Phase II) report contained a rich data base, excellent analyses and five alternatives encompassing $167 million of county expenditures covering our 16,000 students.
• BCETF’s Phase III was intended to assist individual school districts to review, upon request, the content of the report.

We could extract value from this completed work as it applies to South County districts and advance needed decision making. Consulting earmarks would go a long way to moving this forward.

Should we, or should we not consolidate our two school districts in South County? With five years behind us, it is time to decide our direction!