Southern Berkshire Regional Residents Express Merger Concerns
SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Southern Berkshire community members expressed their apprehension last week over a potential merger between Southern Berkshire Regional School District and Berkshire Hills Regional School District.
Attendees made it clear that the Eight Town Regional School District Planning Board will have to better clarify the timeline, cost, educational experience impact, and district employee impact to get their vote.
Approximately 75 residents expressed their concerns and frustrations during the "community conversation" meeting at Mount Everett Regional School. Other listened in through a Zoom link.
One resident asked why the community is still discussing this when there are so many people expressing their opposition to it.
"There are so many opinions and as passionate as you could be, in terms of your view. There are other people who have another different view," School Committee member Bonnie Silver said. "We even have students when they get together who express opinions across the spectrum. This is a once in a generation decision. So it is not easy."
One resident expressed their frustration on how the board has decided to approach the planning of the project.
She questioned why they scheduled time for naming the new district (the board had solicited names and had the item on last week's agenda) and when it has not been voted on yet rather than prioritizing the many other more important aspects.
"I'm just questioning the amount of detail that's going on when the basics, how much it's going to cost and who's going to have power needs to be addressed before anybody can vote about anything," she said.
Like this resident, many attendees questioned how much the initiative would cost each town and how it would affect the students' education. And how the proposed building project at Monument Mountain Regional High School would affect the cost.
Silver, who represents Sheffield on the Eight Town Board, clarified that the merger and the high school building project are separate and although they are informed of the building project's planning they do not control what is done.
The Southern Berkshire school district is made up of Alford, Egremont, Monterey, New Marlborough, and Sheffield. Berkshire Hills is composed of Great Barrington, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge. The collaborative Eight Town Board of elected and school officials was established three years ago to explore the potential of merged district in the face of declining enrollments.
During previous meetings, the Eight Town Board has followed a specific structure resulting in complaints from residents questioning why they are unable to discuss certain topics, said Silvers, in opening remarks.
The hope for this meeting was that the planning board would receive greater feedback from community members, she said.
These community conversations is something that the School District has been doing for the last three years to "meaningfully engage with the people and families in our district," Superintendent of Schools Beth Regulbuto said.
The merger has to be approved by all eight towns by majority rule during a town meeting. The Eight Town Board hoped to have a merger agreement complete by this year's annual town meetings but is now expecting to need a special town meeting, Silver said.
The process hasn't been easy to this point. Nearly a dozen members of the School Committee threatened to quit the Eight Town Board last fall over concerns of rushed timelines and unresolved questions around the Monument Mountain project and the fate of Mount Everett.
Monument Mountain has been invited into the Massachusetts School Building Authority grant process but one of the obstacles Berkshire Hills is facing is whether the new building will be designed for Monument Mountain's current population or for both districts, Silver said.
A timeline is contingent on a couple of things, she said.
"One of which does Berkshire Hills get a full grant which could give them a projected 46 percent of the cost that's put in based on originally what was $100 million as the projection," Silver said. "There is also a bonus that you may have heard about, which is by working with our district, they can gain a potential 6 percent additional funding that will be added to their grants. So if we use a flat $100 million, we would then say the 6 percent would be $6 million."
An assessment on the district's resources, which include visible plans, buses, teachers, and other aspects that need to be considered was conducted using outside funding.
Some residents asked how a merger would affect the teachers in the school district and whether they should be concerned of possible layoffs if it is approved.
"We have brand-new young teachers here at Southern Berkshire who are phenomenal. I'm assuming because they're new that they would be losing their jobs," the resident said.
Silver said one of the advantages for staff is that there are protections through the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
A majority of residents in attendance also expressed that they understand the benefit this merger would have for Berkshire Hills but questioned the advantage it would have for Southern Berkshire.
The Southern Berkshire has worked to build more opportunities for its students with little schools and the connections it made with Bard College at Simon's Rock, one resident said.
"One of the concerns about the little schools was that we were losing our children once they had gone through there, up to Great Barrington, and I think now the strength that I see from what I'm hearing tonight, we are really stabilizing a soup-to-nuts opportunity," she said in regard to the school's programming.
Now that it is getting to "gel" after three years, she continued, the district has grown substantially through the pandemic due to Regulbuto's work.
"Thanks to [Regulbuto,] thanks to the school district. Let's keep going with getting clarification on what precisely it is, but more and more I'm not sure whether we really do need it. I think we can go at it alone at this point," the resident said.
"We've got the people. We've got the will and we certainly apparently have a good looking structure for the next 10 years going forward about what kind of a district we want to be for the 21st century."
Silver said this is something that school officials have considered and discussed at previous meetings and that the district has "basically [been] guaranteed by Simon's Rock" that the program will continue.
"That's what's been funded. What has been funded is the grants are for Mount Everett. So anything that happened in the future has not been broken down," Silver said.
Tags: BHRSD, merger, SBRSD,
