BHS contracted ERDMAN, a national leader in healthcare strategy, design, and implementation, to study and make recommendations regarding how to improve Fairview Hospital’s campus to meet the current standards of healthcare facilities.
Forming a new or combined district, as both have indicated a willingness to explore, could take a minimum of two to three years. In addition, there would need to be a transition period of several months to a year.
School committee members noted that the driving force behind the merger should be greater opportunity for students and a desire "to keep education strong" in the two districts amid declining enrollments.
Berkshire Hills voted unanimously to appoint two subcommittees. The first will focus on the nuts and bolts of a potential consolidation. On the recommendation of the Southern Berkshire school committee, a second subcommittee would focus on the educational aspect of the potential consolidation.
The Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee voted unanimously to send a letter to Southern Berkshire and its five member towns asking to establish a planning group to explore consolidation for grades 9-12
At last Thursday’s school committee meeting, Rich Dohoney of Great Barrington proposed that Berkshire Hills issue a written request to its member towns, along with the Southern Berkshire Regional School District and its own member towns, to form a planning board "for the purpose of either forming, or consolidating into, a regional high school district to serve grades 9-12."
Berkshire Hills School Committee member Rich Dohoney said he is approached by South County residents all the time and the most common question he hears is why Berkshire Hills isn't trying to merge with Southern Berkshire.
Ironically, it actually cost a lot of money to keep the overall increases down. In order to limit the operating budget increase to 4.21 percent, the school committee had to spend $840,000 from a reserve fund known as excess and deficiency.
Officials say the foundation budget is adjusted and increased each year but mostly along the lines of inflation. But several expenses school districts are confronted with increase at a pace that greatly exceeds inflation: health insurance for current employees and retirees; special education, especially out-of-district placements; English language instruction for non-native speakers; preschool; data collection, including how students are counted; and transportation.
Berkshire Hills’ director of operations Steven Soule will once again assess the condition of 50-year-old Monument Mountain Regional High School and draft the statement, which will explain a number of deficiencies including 'building condition, access, health and safety, as well as deficiencies for instructional programs, especially science and career and technical facilities.'
Tabakin asked the school committee to delay its vote to approve or reject the proposed budget because she would like the school committee to meet first with Great Barrington’s selectmen and finance committee.
Great Barrington's assessment will rise a projected 6.7 percent to about $16.4 million, in part because of an increase in the town's state-mandated minimum local contribution, which determines a minimum each town should pay based on the wealth of the community.
At issue is that the plan ran afoul of the town's Cottage Era Estate zoning bylaw governing the development of a handful of historic properties in town that fall under that bylaw.
The vote by Berkshire Health Group, the school district's joint health insurance-purchasing entity, to keep rates flat for next year surprised district officials, but they're not complaining.
The driving force behind regional school reform is enrollments, which are dropping at an alarming pace. Berkshire County school districts saw enrollment losses of 22 percent between 2000 and 2015.
