CHESHIRE, Mass. — Cheshire Citizens For Education say its petition requesting an emergency amendment to the regional school district agreement is in the process of being certified and is legitimate.

 

According to a letter written to iBerkshires on Friday morning by leaders of the group trying to keep Cheshire Elementary School open, the petition was sent to the Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee to be certified.

 

"The petition was sent without certification to Mr. [Superintendent Robert] Putnam, Mr. [School Chairman Paul] Butler, and Mr. [Adams Town Administrator Tony] Mazzucco stating that we were just awaiting certification. Mr. Putnam acknowledged receipt of the petition. It was delivered to the town of Cheshire on Tuesday for certification of registered voter purposes only."

 

The petition, to be on both the Cheshire and Adams town meeting warrants, asks that Cheshire be allowed to raise more money for Cheshire Elementary School without Adams having to raise a proportionate amount. 

 

The School Committee made a financial decision to close Cheshire and keep Plunkett School in Adams open. The decision caused an uproar in the smaller town of Cheshire and has lead to efforts to try to keep the school open another year. The town may have to raise some $300,000 extra this year to do so.

 

Adams closed its town meeting warrant earlier last week and Mazzucco said even though the article to amend the district agreement came in in time via citizens' petition, the petition signatures needed to be certified and sent through the School Committee.

 

Per the district agreement, the agreement can be amended if two-thirds of the School Committee votes to send the amendment to both towns to approve or disapprove at town meeting.

 

This can also be achieved if a petition containing 10 percent of the registered voters' signatures in either Cheshire or Adams is presented to the School Committee. After the School Committee certifies the petition, it can send the article to the towns.

 

The letter states that the petition is in the process of being certified and because of time restraints, the group placed the article on the Adams town meeting via citizens' petition.

 

"The reason this was last minute was because, per the Committee meeting on the 24th, it was understood the School Committee would be doing this. We had our legal counsel draft a petition, and in 3 days got around 300 signature," the letter states. "We found out Monday they would be looking to close the Adams town warrant so we took every action possible to make sure this petition language is on the warrant." 

 

Both towns need to agree to the amendment that would allow Cheshire to increase its allocation to fund the operation of Cheshire School. According to the agreement, any allocation increase on one of the member towns would trigger a proportional increase in the other. 

 

With the unlikelihood of Adams passing a larger budget to keep Cheshire School open, the group is looking to bypass this part of the agreement and keep Cheshire open for one more year. 

 

The letter closed by stating that the group felt as though it were receiving push back.

 

"The fact that so many in Cheshire are willing to pay, yet we keep getting resistance is unreal. We are not sure why there is such a fight against keeping a school."