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Lanesborough Hears Plan to Make Mount Greylock Funding More Equitable
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:20AM / Tuesday, September 15, 2015
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Harley Phelps was recognized for 40 years of service to the town's Zoning Board of Appeals.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The chairman of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Monday informed the Board of Selectmen that the district will be seeking a special town meeting this fall in each of Mount Greylock's member towns in order to amend the regional agreement that governs the district.
 
Carolyn Greene told the board that the School Committee wants to create a more equitable apportionment of capital expenses before Mount Greylock brings an addition/renovation project to voters this spring.
 
Currently, the agreement divides capital costs based on the equalized property values in each community and the proportion of students from each town at the time a project is bonded.
 
"That is very progressive," Greene noted. "Most regional agreements don't include equalized value. So there was clearly some decision made in 1958 that that was important to this region. ... But it's not as equitable as, perhaps, it could be."
 
Thus the current drive to make capital apportionment fluctuate throughout the life of the bond.
 
The School Committee is developing a proposal that would tie capital apportionment to a five-year rolling enrollment average, similar to the formula used to split the district's operating expenses each year.
 
"In 2010, as you'll recall, the regional agreement was revised from an annual adjustable enrollment to a five-year rolling average so neither town was hit by any fluctuation," Greene said. "My understanding is it's a vast improvement."
 
The School Committee also wants the equalized value piece of the apportionment puzzle to change as property values rise and fall in each community, Greene said.
 
Greene's committee wants to bring the change to the regional agreement to a vote by the middle of December. Any changes to the agreement must be finalized by Dec. 31 in order to take effect in 2016, the year when the district anticipates a vote to bond a renovation project.
 
The Selectmen agreed to wait until Mount Greylock presents a proposed warrant article to call a special town meeting but began eyeing Tuesday, Dec. 1, as a likely date.
 
Greene's visit was on the agenda for Monday's meeting, but prior to her appearance before the board, issues relating to Mount Greylock were raised by Finance Committee member Ron Tinkham, who presented a list of five questions he would like to see put before the voters: whether the town should pay for fiber optic connections, whether Mount Greylock should expand to a pre-K through 12 school district, whether the town should pursue the recent offer from the town of Adams to send Lanesborugh students to Hoosac Valley High School, whether Mount Greylock's building project should go forward and whether Mount Greylock's funding for capital projects should be altered.
 
On the last point, Tinkham had a slightly different plan than the School Committee pitched. He proposed the apportionment be based on student ratios and the relative per-capita incomes of residents. He noted that the commonwealth already uses per-capita income as a factor in determining school funding.
 
Tinkham raised the issue of per-capita income again during Greene's presentation, and she said she would ask the School Committee's Finance Committee to run the numbers and see if that would make the funding more equitable.
 
Greene also faced questions from Selectman Henry Sayers, who said his bigger concern with the Mount Greylock Regional School District is that "you guys can outvote us on the budget."
 
Sayers said Lanesborough "feels threatened" by the fact that Williamstown and Lanesborough voters vote together to elect the seven members of the Mount Greylock School Committee.
 
Greene responded that the districtwide elections have been Mount Greylock's model since the region was founded and, in fact, the districtwide election helps Lanesborough voters have more of a say.
 
"What that does is allow you to have representation that is above your population," Greene said. "If you only elected your Lanesborough representatives, you would have to stick to whatever your population dictates. ... I think you would have two or two-and-a-half [votes] rather than the three you have now."
 
According to the agreement, four members of the School Committee are Williamstown residents, and three are Lanesborough residents. But all seven are elected by a popular vote of voters in both towns. Williamstown has about 7,800 residents; Lanesborough has about 3,000 residents.
 
Sayers also pressed Greene on the issue of school choice students, inferring that they are a drain on Mount Greylock's budget and accusing Williamstown Elementary School of taking more choice students than Lanesborough Elementary School; graduates of either elementary school have the right to attend the junior-senior high school as school choice students.
 
Lanesborough Selectmen John Goerlach, left, Robert Ericson and Henry Sayers.
Greene refuted the notion that school choice students hurt Mount Greylock's bottom line.
 
"We took in $400,000 in choice and tuition last year," Greene said. "That's revenue that offsets operating expenses [assessed] to both towns. I know this is a long discussion, but at this moment in time, the income we get from tuition and choice far outweighs any expense."
 
Lanesborough Town Administrator Paul Sieloff told Greene that without school choice and tuition students, Mount Greylock could build a smaller building, thus decreasing the size of the addition/renovation project.
 
"A couple of classrooms," Greene said. "That's what it is. You're still paying for the cafeteria and the gym and the library and all of the infrastructure. ... Part of Hoosac Valley's pitch is they need more kids to sustain the programming they want to offer. We sustain programming for our resident students by having 100 kids per grade.
 
"You have to look at all sides of it. It's much more complicated than saying, 'If we didn't have those choice students, we wouldn't have to build as large a school.' "
 
"It does mean that," Sieloff replied. You wouldn't be able to have the offerings. Perhaps it would mean less language classes, perhaps whatever else is there."
 
At that point, Chairman John Goerlach reined in the conversation, noting that it had gotten off topic and that voters who question the value of Mount Greylock as it is can vote against the building project when the time comes.
 
Greene agreed.
 
"The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and [Massachusetts School Building Authority] both look at us as a choice and tuition school," she said. "We have probably 10 communities that send kids to our school We're in very high demand. That's what makes us the school we are.
 
"I think you're right, John. If you have a serious issue with that, the opportunity to oppose the project is at the vote."
 
In other education news on Monday, the board heard an update from Lanesborough School Committee Chairwoman Regina Dilego on the activities of the Berkshire County Education Task Force.
 
Dilego said the group is still in the study phase, looking at a variety of options ranging from increased cooperation between the county's school district to the creation of a countywide "super region." But she stressed that anything that comes out of the task force would be a recommendation to towns; the body has no power to enact any changes or force towns to change districts or close schools.
 
Greene also noted from the floor of the meeting that the task force was in agreement that no school building projects currently in the MSBA pipeline should be delayed because of the work of the task force.
 
In other business, the board accepted a bid of $17,500 from D.J. Wooliver and Sons of Lanesborough to replace the roof on the police station. The bid came in higher than anticipated, but Wooliver was the only firm to respond to the town's request for proposals, Sieloff told the Selectmen.
 
The board also discussed whether it needs to post signage at town parks prohibiting the consumption of alcoholic beverages without a special permit, approved a common victualler's license for the Berkshire Hospitality Group (doing business as Mad Jacks BBQ), appointed Carol Caird to the senior tax work-off program, set Oct. 31 from 5 to 7 p.m. as the town's Halloween trick-or-treating hours and recognized Harley Phelps for 40 years of service to the town's Zoning Board of Appeals.
 
"This is one of the brightest, finest people in the county," resident Bob Barton said from the floor of the meeting. "I think we are blessed to have him on the ZBA and even more blessed to have him as a family and community leader."
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