Adams-Cheshire Residents See More Regionalization as Answer
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Adams-Cheshire Regional School District is facing a decision: Consolidate and get small, join another district and get big.
That seemed the takeaway from Saturday's community forum at Hoosac Valley High School hosted by the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management. The center, based at the University of Massachusetts, was hired by Adams to identify and analyze alternatives to reduce costs for the district.
The forum was designed to identify community values and goals, measures of success and how they want the district to move forward. The two-town district has been grappling with rising costs and declining enrollment and academic scores.
Attendees broke into groups to discuss needs and challenges.
One topic that continued to arise was the district's need to shrink, possibly close a school and more efficiently use resources. However, other attendees thought it should grow and regionalize with another school district, such as North Adams, to share costs.
"I think the school rivalry is less of an issue than it was when I grew up because we want a quality education and we don't want taxes to go up," School Committee Chairman Paul Butler said of the longtime Hurricane/Blue Devil archrivals. "I think those boundaries are slowly slipping because we realize the most important thing for our kids is their education not what name is on their helmet."
Residents from Adams and Cheshire agreed that the main concern was the quality of education and how to tap into local resources to improve it. Some felt combining with another district would provide an opportunity to expand the campus, programming and resources.
Along with this, residents wanted to make sure that Adams-Cheshire continues to be safe and maintain its own sense of values and community no matter what.
Interim Superintendent Robert Putnam said when it comes down to it, everyone just wants their children to receive the very best education and are dedicated to figuring out how.
"What rises to the top, as it does all of the time, is how can we make this the best education for our kids because that is what it is always about," he said. "Someone said we want to be Hurricanes on the field and in the classroom and that's a real desire the community has."
Adams Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco said he thought residents are really starting to understand that the school and towns really do face a financial crisis and big changes need to be made to find stability.
"I think people are finally understanding that we are facing a financially impossible situation and any given year you can rearrange but it's not changing the financial trend we are facing," he said. "We are not growing and we are seeing this throughout the county."
Mazzucco said even if McCann Technical and Berkshires Arts and Technology Public Charter schools were to leave the area, the regional school district would still not be able to stabilize. Even closing a school was a short-term solution.
"It is probably something we have to do just to keep our heads above water and I think we would save a fair amount of money but it is not a long-term solution," Mazzucco said. "We would get a few years of stability out of it. What we really have to do is shrink to a one-campus district or share with another district."
Mazzucco said the other option is to grow and increase the population, which he said is a county wide issue.
Attendees also wanted the role of technology to increase in the classroom, more internship opportunities, better marketing of academics and better communication with the schools among other things.
Another public meeting scheduled for Nov. 3 but in the evening. Putnam wished more people had attended Saturday's meeting, but said the conversation was great and he has high hopes for November.
"I think the conversation was just so rich, so imaginative and from the heart, and I love how this is organized," he said. "I have been listening to every table trying to take it all in and I hope these folks go home and tell their friends and family to come in November."
Tags: ACRSD, community forum,
