WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School District Transition Committee on Tuesday voted unanimously to accept the gradual elementary school tuition increase negotiated between the district and the New Ashford School Committee.

 

In a 6-0 vote, all the committee members in attendance agreed to bring the tuition rate at Lanesborough Elementary School in line with the per-pupil cost at the school as published by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education over the course of three years.

 

For fiscal 2019, that means an increase from $8,977 per pupil to $12,477, a hike of 39 percent. Next year, the rate goes to $14,442. In the final year of the three-year contract, New Ashford would be charged the DESE published rate per child.

 

New Ashford's part-time school superintendent and its School Committee chair negotiated that agreement with Mount Greylock Interim Superintendent Kimberley Grady and Transition Committee member Chris Dodig, and last week, the New Ashford committee approved the deal in a 2-1 vote.

 

"Essentially, we indicated we were open to their request that we have a graduated tuition hike at Lanesborough Elementary, similar to the tuition hike we're using at Mount Greylock," Dodig said, reporting back to the rest of his committee on Tuesday.

 

Grady explained some of the other adjustments that were made in the contract since the last time the Transition Committee saw it, principally around how transportation and special education costs are allocated to the sending town.

 

In the past, Lanesborough Elementary has charged New Ashford separately for special education expenses on top of the standard per-pupil rate, but Grady clarified that special ed costs are factored into the DESE per-pupil number.

 

"What will be billed back are costs that require us to add staff or purchase additional adaptive equipment," she said.

 

A decision earlier this year by the Transition Committee to set tuition rates at the DESE number drew a backlash from New Ashford, which sends students to Lanesborough and Mount Greylock, and Hancock, which has its own elementary school but tuitions middle and high school students to Mount Greylock.

 

Ultimately, the Transition Committee, which assumed control of the district on Jan. 1, decided to honor a pre-existing Mount Greylock tuition agreement that was raising the rate gradually over a five-year period. As for Lanesborough Elementary, its School Committee already had set a policy to raise tuition to the DESE published rate, currently $17,314 per pupil.

 

But with the advent of preK-12 regionalization in the Mount Greylock district, the Transition Committee had the option to maintain the status quo or go in an entirely different direction with all the existing tuition agreements.

 

On Tuesday, New Ashford parent Jennifer Welch thanked the Transition Committee for reconsidering its Jan. 2 vote and negotiating with the town.

 

Welch, who serves on her town's School Committee but clarified that she was not speaking for that panel, also said she hopes New Ashford supports the school budget at its annual town meeting on May 15.

 

"I think most of us found the arguments and pleas by the [LES parents] pretty compelling," Dodig said prior to the vote. "If we approve this, we have given New Ashford what they've asked us for, and I hope the town supports its students and parents as well."

 

In other business on Tuesday, the Transition Committee learned from Chairman Joe Bergeron that its two candidates for superintendent, Grady and Taconic Principal John Vosburgh, will sit for interviews at a special meeting of the committee on Thursday, April 5, at 6 p.m. Bergeron said he is scheduling one hour for each interview and expects the committee to make a decision offering the position to one of the candidates as early as that evening.

 

The committee also Tuesday discussed the status 2018-19 school calendars for its three schools.

 

Unfortunately, the calendar setting process is running behind because the district is still in the process of negotiating the first unified contract with bargaining units at Mount Greylock, Lanesborough Elementary and Williamstown Elementary.

 

"In terms of the negotiation over the start of the school year, teachers consider it an economic issue, so they're tying it to salary and insurance and longevity," said Dodig, who serves on the Transition Committee's negotiations subcommittee.

 

Dodig said he would ask the union if it would consider "carving out" the start date from the rest of the package so that the district at least could have some certainty around that.

 

The first day of school also came up earlier in the evening in the context of the Transition Committee's joint meeting with the Mount Greylock School Building Committee.