To the editor:
Providing high quality public education for our children is the most important investment we make in our local communities. This is reflected in our town budgets and, more importantly, in the value we place in preparing our kids for successful careers. We are fortunate to live in communities long served by two strong school districts that prize innovation, supporting students, and attracting and retaining excellent teachers, who are the bedrock of any high-quality school. This tradition of excellence is reflected in the curriculum and extracurricular programs offered by both districts.
We are at a crossroads with two potential paths forward for how to sustain our tradition of educational excellence across eight communities in southern Berkshire County. Enrollments are declining as costs continue to rise. Are our kids better served by two separate districts or one? The Regional School District Planning Board (RSDPB), for which I serve as vice-chair, has spent over three years studying the feasibility and educational benefits that could be afforded if the two districts merge.
The proposal before the voters later this month is the reflection of what we have learned by exploring demographic and budget trends; educational visioning; and very practical things, like busing and facilities, that impact the student experience. The last three years have provided many opportunities to listen and learn from students, teachers, parents, and residents. RSDPB findings indicate we are better together as an eight-town region. A larger district has the capacity to offer more diverse options in academics, vocational programs, sports, arts, technology literacy, and special needs learning in the face of declining enrollments and rising costs.
The other path forward is to keep two separate, smaller districts. Proponents of this path cite the value of smaller schools and the preservation of school culture and particular programs. Additional concerns expressed include potential costs and the proposed regional agreement that outlines how decisions will be made and by whom, as well how the district will be paid for, among other things.
Listening to and respecting different points of view is seen less and less these days, especially in national-level politics. I urge those who may be instinctively drawn to one side or the other to pause and be open to understanding the opposing point of view. When my family lived in Maine, one of our daughters graduated from a public high school with a senior class of 10 students, so I am intimately aware of the value of small schools. I also know that all things have trade-offs too: Our daughter did not have access to a broad array of academic and extracurricular offerings. I respect the view that small schools matter. At the same time, I know firsthand that small schools and small districts have less ability to offer the education our children need to succeed in the 21st century. This matters if our shared value is sustaining educational excellence in the face of these challenges.
While listening to and respecting different points of view is important in any healthy debate, I also think it is important to point out unsubstantiated arguments. I disagree with the arguments put forth by opponents that the regional agreement is flawed. The RSDPB spent the last year developing the proposed agreement with the support of expert educational and legal advice, including participation from the Department of Education. We hammered out provisions that balanced the interests of all eight towns, and several key elements that were adopted protect the interests of the communities in the Southern Berkshire Regional School District. Collectively, the board made these decisions because we believe that, in the long run, we need a regional district that can work for all eight towns and protects the interests of all towns. These provisions include:
- Governance, Budgets and Policy — A school committee that guarantees more seats for those who live in the towns currently in the Southern Berkshire Regional School District. This eight-town school committee will be responsible for the things any school committee does, including developing budgets, negotiating contracts, and reviewing and approving curricula and programs recommended by the educational leaders of the new district.
- Annual Costs to District Towns — Annual increases in operating cost assessments to individual member towns will be controlled through a safety valve, or essentially a cap, that will ensure no town has an increase in any year greater than 2 percent more than the overall assessment increase. This funding cap is designed to smooth the transition and will mostly benefit the five communities in Southern Berkshire Regional School District and, by design, ask the three communities in the Berkshire Hills District to invest more to contribute to the success of eight-town region in those initial years. Over time, all towns will benefit from the enhanced educational opportunities and economies of scale we can realize from combining the two districts.
- School closures — An extensive process is built into the proposed agreement before any proposal to close a school goes to the voters, including a feasibility study, a two-thirds vote of the school committee (with residents from six of the eight towns having to vote in favor). Any school committee vote would then have to be ratified by the voters in at least six of the eight towns.
It has been said throughout this debate that we are at an important generational crossroads as this decision before us will impact our kids, families, and communities today and well into the future. I believe that too. We can build off the strengths of our respective districts—combining programs, resources, and teachers behind an educational vision that includes sustaining innovative opportunities like early college, robotics, and career pathways. By combining, the eight towns, together, can also build a state-of-the art high school with an extensive vocational program offering up to six career tracks. Through the economies of scale offered by the merger, we can add and sustain important programs that server our students at a time that many districts are forced to cut programs. By bringing our eight communities together, as a region, we will be better positioned now and in future to continue to do the most important thing we do as communities: providing a high-quality education for all our children.
Peter Taylor, Vice Chair of the Eight Town Regional School District Planning Board
Great Barrington
