After merger fails, Monument goes it alone

By HeatHer Bellow The Berkshire Eagle

It appeared a hopeful breakthrough four years ago when two neighboring school districts began merger talks after decades of more informal and sporadic discussions.

But after three years of research and number-crunching – and much hot debating – the talks frayed and voters shot down a consolidation plan.

Now, the Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire regional school districts are continuing as they were before. The idea of an eight-town school district was laid to rest, at least, after the effort was made.

Here’s what happened. In 2019 those merger talks were made official with the birth of the 8 Town Regional School District Planning Board. The 24-member panel did a deep-dive into every aspect of both districts and the schools.

With the expertise of educator and consultant Jake Eberwein, the board studied population and economic trends, transportation routes and costs, as well as a host of other data, and found that student headcounts had been declining and would continue to fall.

With flat state aid and bigger school budgets, the board said, continuing on the same path would further burden rural towns with higher school costs and taxes – the primary driver of merger talks to begin with.

Over time, rural schools hollowed out by shrinking populations would also limit student access to educational programs, according to the board’s research.

The data, the board concluded, pointed to a merger as the best way forward for financial and educational health of the schools, students and South County towns.

The plan placed before voters in all eight towns was to merge the two districts and the two high schools – Mount Everett in Sheffield, and Monument Mountain in Great Barrington. All high school students would attend a freshly overhauled Monument High, under the plan, and the elementary and middle schools would remain as they are.

Such a move would, the panel said, save at least $1.2 million a year in education costs.

But voters didn’t bite.

Opposition was fierce among residents, parents and officials in the Southern Berkshire towns. Some poked holes in the board’s research and disagreed with their assessments and findings. They feared the loss of what they said is a unique and cherished school culture, particularly at Mount Everett high.

“Our high school is alive,” said Ellen Maggio, a longtime resident whose three adult daughters attended Mount Everett and district schools, speaking at Egremont’s special town meeting before the vote. “We don’t need a new high school. We have a high school.”

Parents also pointed to the benefits of smaller class size. The school community fretted over a loss of control, worrying that education and culture would become Berkshire Hills-centric — wiping out their own.

And they accused those favoring the plan of trying to railroad it in. Some also alleged that Berkshire Hills only wanted a merger because it would result in more state money for the coming overhaul of Monument Mountain High.

When eight special town meetings came around in October, voters from only one of the Southern Berkshire district’s five towns — Alford — agreed to merge.

After the votes, 8 Town Board Chair Lucy Prashker painted a bleak picture for the future.

“The challenges remain unsolved,” she said. “The challenges of low and declining enrollment, the increasing burdens those declines place on our taxpayers, and, most importantly, the limiting of choices and opportunities for our children.”

Prashker said leaders who opposed the plan should come forward with alternatives.

Alford subsequently flirted with the possibility of joining the Berkshire Hills district, which also includes the towns of Stockbridge and

West Stockbridge. Superintendent Peter Dillon said recently that there haven’t been any more discussions with Alford since.

Dillon also said that the plan to renovate or rebuild Monument High is still in motion — district officials recently chose an architect and designer for the Monument project.

Monument, built in 1968, is longoverdue for a rehab.

But the school will be sized only for the district’s three towns — or four, had Alford joined the district — instead of eight.

Once again, rural eyes are turning east to Beacon Hill, where a bill for financial sustainability of rural schools is moving through the Statehouse. Will the state throw some extra money at its struggling schools?

If it does, it might cost at least $60 million a year. That’s the amount needed to plug the spending gap between rural and nonrural school districts — the latter of which get over 12 percent more per student, according to a 2022 report by the state Commission on the Financial Health of Rural School Districts.

That commission’s recommendations include financial incentives for merging schools, as well as an infusion annually of that $60 million plus for a rural school aid fund.