WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday agreed to talk with neighboring school districts about finding ways to cooperate with one another.

 

A couple members of the panel expressed reservations about how far that cooperation should go.

 

Superintendent Joseph Bergeron brought the committee a request to assign two of its members to join him on a joint committee of the North Adams Public Schools, Hoosac Valley Regional School District and Northern Berkshire School Union.

 

"They've been having discussions in more depth than we have … over some period of time about the different ways their districts can collaborate," Bergeron said. "They reached a point recently where they have funding available to conduct a study. … The steps will be, first off, a group of school districts deciding what types of data we want to look at, what types of questions we want to ask, what types of things we want a consulting firm to help us think through.

 

"This motion tonight is all about: Do we want to have a seat at the table to participate in the process of saying, 'What data is interesting to look at? What types of things are we interested in exploring?' "

 

To that end, Bergeron gave the Mount Greylock committee a draft motion similar to the one put before the other three district committees with a significant amendment.

 

The other three boards charged the exploratory committee with looking at, "options for potential regionalization" for secondary education among the three districts.

 

Bergeron's motion for the Mount Greylock School Committee changed that language to, "options for potential collaboration and/or regionalization."

 

"In practice, what this means is I would love to look at areas like, 'Are we best serving students in special education when we need, right now, to send them a long distance away?' " Bergeron said. "Could we provide better services closer to home? Are there ways we can't currently provide diversity of curricular offerings in our high school that we could provide if we figured out how to collaborate with peers? Are there ways for us to share in some of the operating and other costs that are not directly related to education, such that we could all have better services or less costly services?

 

"These are the types of questions that, to me, immediately come to mind. Other people will have other questions, and someone needs to say, 'What data do we need in order to figure that out?' "

 

The "and/or collaboration" clause was an apparent nod to past objections raised in the Mount Greylock district about the aspirational goals of the Berkshire County Education Task Force.

 

But the modification was not enough to keep School Committee member Steven Miller from expressing fear the exploratory committee will explore greater regionalization in North Berkshire.

 

"The only question I have is what is meant by the word, 'regionalization?' " Miller said. "Is this thinking about how to advocate and allocate or is it talking about a potential super district? I want to be clear that this is not the first step on a path to trying to form a large district where we are folded in with other towns."

 

Of the three districts already committed to the exploratory committee, only the City of North Adams is a single-municipality district. Mount Greylock is a two-town district consisting of Lanesborough and Williamstown.

 

Bergeron explained that the language in his draft motion was intentionally open-ended, allowing the type of collaboration to be driven by the data collected in the study phase.

 

Miller, who ended up voting in the minority of a 5-1 vote to join the exploratory committee, continued to disagree.

 

"I would still feel better if the language was more explicit about what is meant by regionalization," he said. "I'd feel better if it was talking about, 'Trying to form purchasing blocks, trying to allocate resources across districts, trying to share classes,' things along those lines and not ... this is a slow path to resurfacing the Berkshire County Education Task Force idea of the super district.

 

"Earlier tonight we were talking about how valuable it is that people know who their SC members are. There was an attempt for us to join a grant many years ago and, buried in it, there was language that this was the first step toward regionalization."

 

Miller proposed a "friendly amendment" to drop the word "regionalization" and reference only "collaboration."

 

At times, Miller referred to "thorny issues" raised by regionalization and said past discussions of yoking multiple school districts "stirred up a hornets nest."

 

Curtis Elfenbein said he was OK keeping or removing the word "regionalization" but shared Miller's concerns on the topic of regionalization.

 

"I honestly don't care if we want to keep it or cut it," Elfenbein said. "In my mind, regionalization is such a broad term that it might include what I also agree is a nightmare scenario of trying to unify that horseshoe of districts. But to my understanding, regionalization can mean anything. I agree with Joe that it's not as broad a term as collaboration. But I'm fine with it being in there if it's going to hold up the process of us joining the conversation. I'm fine taking it out of there."

 

Carolyn Greene, a founding member of the BCETF, said that if the Mount Greylock district joined the exploratory committee with preconceived notions of what the result will be, that is not fair to other districts already engaged in a study.

 

"We can't begin this process from a place of fear," Greene said. "This is an opportunity to join a conversation. It's nothing more than that right now.

 

"Even though we may not be interested in regionalization, some of the members of this group could very well be interested in regionalization. I hesitate to take it out because regionalization may need to be part of the conversation for some of the members of this working group. It doesn't mean all members, but it is part of the discussion because there are financial crises afoot. Sometimes those drive decisions in good ways, and it doesn't mean every district that is part of the conversation is going to talk about reorganizing. But some of them might."

 

Chair Julia Bowen, after hearing that Greene did not accept the friendly amendment to a motion already on the table, moved forward with a vote.

 

Miller did not move and seek a second for a vote on his amendment proposal, and the other five members in attendance — Bowen, Greene, Elfenbein, Jose Constantine and Christina Conry — voted in favor of the motion as proposed by Bergeron.

 

At the start of the meeting, during the committee's public comment period, North Adams School Committee member Cody Chamberlain addressed the body.

 

"I just wished to express my appreciation to this committee for considering joining others throughout Northern Berkshire County in evaluating the ways we might collaborate to best serve all the students in our community," Chamberlain said. "I'm excited and eager to meet the representatives your chair appoints, hopefully, and to see what opportunities might be devised ... all without any commitment or expectation."