Education Task Force Briefs Cheshire, ACRSD Officials
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Town and school officials were told this week by members of the Berkshire Education Task Force that with a dipping population and shrinking resources, challenges facing Berkshire County schools are more likely to worsen than improve.
"What we think is clear, just the way the county is numbers, student and financially wise, things are not going to get better," task force member Robert Vaughn, a longtime educator and chairman of the Lenox School Committee, told the Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee on Monday night. "We assume they are likely to get worse."
Douglas McNally, former Taconic High principal, was a little more forceful at the Selectmen's meeting on Tuesday.
"I don't mean to use alarmist language but countywide, we are facing a fiscal cliff," he said. "We are finding out there is almost no solution long term that an individual community or an individual district can adopt that will solve the problem. The sense is the only way we can move forward is as a large entity."
The task force was formed to look at the challenges facing local school districts, particularly regarding enrollment and funding. It commissioned the report on the challenges facing county education by the University of Massachusetts' Donahue Institute.
Its members are now updating some 40 different boards on the findings and what's next.
Enrollment is down countywide 22 percent from 2003 and is expected tank another 11 percent. These lower enrollment numbers are not helped by increasing expenses and stagnant revenue.
The situation has worsened because of challenges in state education funding, rising salaries, rising health insurance, and community budgets nearing their levy limits. Five communities are expected to hit their levy ceilings in the next five years.
This includes Adams.
"As you can see, Adams is nearing the ceiling ... it is not a good direction to be going in," Vaughn said on Monday.
He also noted that because of school districts' shrinking resources, students are hit the hardest with cuts to staffing and programming. He said language, explorative courses and art programs are the first to go.
"I think Hoosac valley would be a prime example of this because you had to make cuts and some tough decisions needed to be made," Vaughn said. "I think you know that more than anybody."
That was reinforced on Tuesday by McNally.
"When any one community in a regional school district hit their levy ceiling it caps anything you can do as a district," he said. "You in Cheshire can't do an override to take care of the fact Adams can't afford your agreement."
McNally said the rest of the state is not seeing an enrollment decreases like Berkshire County. Only Cape Cod and some communities in Franklin County have similar challenges.
"The rest of the state is not experiencing this and we need to get Boston to understand that even though enrollment is increasing around Boston, it is not here," he said. "Also, the state funding formula really does not protect us."
The task force's main goal is not necessarily to find ways to save money but to create a more equitable education system in which students have more opportunities.
Ellen Kennedy, president of Berkshire Community College, who appeared with Vaughn on Monday, said the next step of the task force's charge will delve deeper into this.
A request for services was just released, she said, to hire a firm to project the economic and program implications of a few different scenarios: do nothing, expand on shared services with other communities, partner with neighboring districts or create a "super region" in which the county's 19 districts are combined to create three or fewer districts.
"We wanted to see how could we create a more equitable education system for the students in the county," Vaughn said. "Perhaps involving collaboration, regionalization or some other structure that may allow for districts to find some savings but more importantly, ways to increase equity for the student."
The School Committee asked if the task force could find any more information on why the population is decreasing so fast.
Vaughn said there are just fewer children being born in the Berkshires and younger people are moving to places with more employment opportunities.
On Tuesday, Selectman Paul Astorino asked how long it would take before the county sees big changes.
McNally said bold moves would likely come into play in three years but some districts, including Adams-Cheshire, have already begun regionalization efforts to save money.
"The good news is already in your district and in North Berkshire there are initiatives going forward to start implementing practices that might reduce costs," McNally said. "So as a task force we are saying to folks when you see some low hanging fruit grab it and don't wait until these recommendations come out."
Astorino also noted that the issue has two sides and towns may not be able to afford their schools but want to provide the best education possible.
"We want to provide the proper education for the kids so they have true options when they decide to go on to college," he said. "We can’t raise money. We passed one override for a school budget … but we can’t keep going back to the well."
Specifically, Astorino pointed out concerns over the loss of some Advanced Placement courses at the high school.
McNally said the task force is in contact with local colleges and both BCC and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts have been discussing ways to reach out to surrounding communities to find ways to offer these courses to high school students.
He added that education is critical to the economic stability of the county because the county needs to be able to attract young families and businesses.
"We don't have any bad schools and we don't have any failing schools, and it's a matter of best or better in Berkshire County," he said. "That is what want to keep. We want to keep the quality that we have always enjoyed and that’s the challenge."
Tags: ACRSD, education task force,
