HUNTINGTON – State Senator Benjamin B. Downing (D-Pittsfield) was at Stanton Hall last night, to hear his constituents’ thoughts and to share any new developments on the Town of Worthington’s home rule petition to leave the Gateway Regional School District.
Approximately 40 people filled the hall, including Gateway Regional Superintendent Dr. David Hopson, School Committee Chair Gretchen Eliason, and several other members of the Gateway School Committee, along with residents from all seven of the towns that have comprised the Gateway Regional District for the past half-century.
The Huntington Selectboard, composed of Chair Aimee Burnham, John McVeigh, and Jeffrey McKittrick, and the town’s counsel, Attorney James Lampke of Hingham, presided over the meeting, and it was Burnham who posed most of the early questions to Downing after he gave his update of the situation.
“The status is unchanged since December 19 of last year when the bill was referred to the Senate Committee of Bills in the Third Reading,” said Downing, who serves as Chair of that Committee. “We are continuing to go through information, comments from the public, and ideas that the towns have had.”
Downing brought up one such idea, a proposal from the Blandford Selectboard to look for an additional appropriation to mitigate the $630,000 shortfall for the district to forgive it’s debts, which he believes the Massachusetts School Building Authority will be opposed to.
“It’s not something Rep. (Stephen) Kulik and I have had time to talk about yet,” he said, adding that he is seeking a time to meet with the Democrat from Worthington on the situation, one that Kulik has taken considerable heat for from his constituents when he filed Worthington’s Home Rule legislation in an informal session.
The bill was voted on by only five members of the legislature, and many in Chester, Huntington and Middlefield, Gateway Regional communities which sit in Kulik’s district, along with the other three Gateway Regional towns of Blandford, Russell, and Montgomery, have expressed their displeasure.
“I’m upset that Representative Kulik didn’t recuse himself from voting because he’s from Worthington, and I’ve spoken with him about that,” said Pandora Hague, a selectman from Russell. “I don’t think it’s fair because he represents some of the other towns.”
“We shouldn’t be taking any time out of the school’s resources that our tax dollars pay, to work on this,” said Burnham, who expressed a desire to seek the help of an outside auditor and possibly a professional mediator. “Kulik said that he was talking about transitional assistance for the towns. He mentioned a pothole fund, which sounds like a fund for when you forget to fund something. Huntington is looking for something to support us for the long haul, not for something to appease us.”
Burnham was vocal about other issues, most notably Chapter 70 funding and vocational transportation funding.
“Everybody loves vocational education,” said Downing. “It’s a matter of how we pay for it. McCann Tech is a top-notch vocational district in one corner of my district. Everybody wants to get up there and it costs money to get everyone in buses up there. How we pay for it is by no means ideal.”
Downing, when asked whether he would possibly withdraw the bill, replied curtly.
“There is a process by which you can withdraw legislation… I’m not going to withdraw it. I represent Worthington too,” he said, but added that, should the town change it’s mind and withdraw it themselves, he said he and Rep. Kulik would ‘step aside.’ “I did not, when I was looking at bills I wanted to file this session, say ‘I would love a bill that removes a community from a district.’ If Worthington changes its mind, it changes everything.”
Hague spoke of working on a compromise between Worthington and the other six towns, and said that their potential departure would hurt the remaining children in the district.
“Our towns are shrinking, and we have less and less children, and if one town is allowed to leave, we’re not going to be able to offer as much to the remaining children,” she said. “I think the people here in this room are the best people to solve this problem. I don’t think the state should’ve gotten involved so quickly. I think this is something we can work out at the local level.”
“There’s a lot of frustration,” Chester Selectman John Baldasaro said. “If we get everyone in a room with Worthington, without attorneys and legislators, and say ‘what’s the problem?’, which we probably should’ve done five years ago, we may be able to work this out, but it appears that opportunity is slipping away.”
“At its core, it’s a challenge that many of the smaller communities are facing,” Downing said. “How to maintain access for high class education at a time of tight budgets. I don’t fault anybody in this room for their frustration because we don’t have the right policy process set up to solve challenges like these.”
Downing, whose district comprises all of Berkshire County and portions of the other three western Mass. counties, said the issues are exacerbated by the locations of districts like Gateway.
“This is an issue that is most acute in the hilltowns and small towns of western Mass., an area that is in many ways unlike a majority of the State of Massachusetts,” Downing said. “So we’re trying to solve these acute problems while many other parts of the state don’t even know they exist.”
“We’re trying to do all we can as a delegation, to meet the common needs and goals of these communities,” he said. “I think there’s a way to do it. I appreciate the input tonight, and we’ll go from there.”
