Mount Greylock School Committee Chairwoman Carrie Greene told the Selectmen that the town will save money with regionalization.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — School officials want voters to decide if the regional school district should be expanded to include the elementary school.

Mount Greylock Regional School Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene asked the Selectmen on Monday to put it on the town meeting agenda. The vote, if approved by both towns, would create one organization for both elementary schools and the high school.

 

"We need to let the voters decide," Greene said.

 

The high school is already one district with one budget and one school committee. The elementary schools operate on their own with their own committees, collective bargaining agreements and budgets. They share an administration through the Superintendency Union 71 agreement.

 

Under a new pre-kindergarten through 12th grade region, there would be one school committee, three collective bargaining agreements and one budget for all three schools.

 

"I see this as an opportunity to reboot. We have been doing really well educationally and we need to think about the future," Greene said.

 

The high school won a $50,000 state grant to work with a consultant and formed a subcommittee to look into the matter. Greene says there are three main benefits for regionalization — education, finances and politics.

 

Since the two elementary schools feed into a common high school, the principals of each elementary school have been working together to align curriculum. Creating a K-12 region would provide a formal structure for that relationship, Greene said.

 

"We have three amazing schools ... The kids are doing great. The faculty are functioning well," Greene said. "We've got a good thing going. But, it is all based on good-will."

 

Financially, Greene said Lanesborough would save just short of $300,000, according to a simulation run by the consultants. While Williamstown would actually pay more for the district — in total the finances would remain the same.

 

"Lanesborough stands to save considerable dollars and Williamstown does not," Greene said.

 

One of the largest differences is in regional school transportation. Currently, the state does not contribute to Lanesborough for the elementary school transportation. The state reimburses for regional school district's transportation — this year at the highest rate in recent history of 90 percent.

 

Greene said overall it is a "wash" because the creation of SU71 and the tri-town district with Mount Greylock Regional School District saw most of the benefits with shared services.

 

Selectman John Goerlach wanted to make sure that regionalization won't lead to the closing of Lanesborough Elementary School.

"There are other benefits we will see but those will be off set by aligning the contracts," Greene said. "We're not going to save large dollars now."

 

As for politics, Greene hopes the move would lead to the towns working closer together. Right now, the political atmosphere is making the regionalization effort difficult, she said.

 

"The political discussions in Lanesborough have really hurt us in Williamstown in trying to sell regionalization," Greene said. "I am hearing more support in Lanesborough than I am in Williamstown."

 

On Wednesday, the Lanesborough School Committee is voting whether or not to dissolve SU71. A vote to regionalize would supersede that.

 

"The district supersedes the union. We would have to dissolve the union anyway," Greene said. "That would become a non-issue."

 

The Selectmen, however, had concerns with the control over the school. Board of Selectmen Chairman John Goerlach questioned the process of closing schools — a concern many Lanesborough residents had when the regionalization discussions first began.

 

Greene said a clause has been developed that would require the town of the home school to approve the closure of its school.

 

Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers questioned the control over the budget. In the district agreement for Mount Greylock, a district vote can supersede the town's vote on a budget. Sayers said he is concerned Williamstown will have the overall say in the budget.

 

Greene, however, said Williamstown is beholden to Lanesborough right now. While Williamstown voters want to spend more on their high school, the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee has been reducing budgets for Lanesborough.

 

"Lanesborough has been controlling out budget more than Williamstown," Greene said, and that is actually becoming a sticking point Williamstown residents are concerned about with regionalization. "In the current history and recent history, Mount Greylock has been more beholden to the Lanesborough fiscal constraints than Williamstown's willingness to pay."

 

She added that the Mount Greylock School Committee is voted on by the entire district.

 

"Many of us have worked very hard to improve the political relationship between the two towns," she said.

 

Greene also said the towns could earn additions percentage points in the reimbursement rate from the School Building Authority in a new building project. And, she said it would be easier to hire executive leadership.

 

"It is going to be really hard to hire a really strong leader in he district with the current bureaucratic structure," she said.

 

Sayers said he would have liked to see the district expanded to include other towns as well.

 

"I would like to see it expand to more than we have now. That would answer a lot of our questions about tuition and choice," he said. 

 

Greene said, "once we are streamlined into one regional school district it is much easier to share services."

 

New Ashford and Hancock have been approached about joining the expanded district, she said.