BOSTON – A bill filed on behalf of the town of Worthington enabling it to withdraw from the Gateway Regional School District passed the House of Representatives in an informal session earlier this week, after deliberation by the State House Education Committee over the past three months.
The bill now moves to the floor of the Senate, where it will remain until after the new year.
According to Ruth Kennedy, a member of the Gateway Regional School Committee, five members of the house voted for the bill unanimously and said that residents of the town have been “treated badly by the district’s administration” which “did what it wanted” by closing three schools in the district.
“That was the nail in the coffin,” Kennedy said. “We in Russell didn’t think they’d close our school. Worthington was ripping (over the committee’s decision). The townspeople have been burning up.”
Kennedy said that the town of Worthington filed legislation in June after the other communities that make up the Gateway Regional School District denied the town the right to leave the district. A unanimous vote by all seven Gateway towns was needed for Worthington to withdraw.
When Middlefield voted no in a town meeting, Worthington held a meeting of its own, voting to take action at the state level.
The town is home to the R.H. Conwell Education Center, the former town elementary school, which reopened in 2010 as an affordable private school through the efforts of It Takes a Community, a foundation run by musician and former frontman for the rock band Staind, Aaron Lewis, who is a Worthington resident. The Gateway Regional district decided to close R.H. Conwell when faced with a $1.4 million budget deficit in 2008.
“The school is doing quite well,” Kennedy said, before saying that the town will still have around 40 students in the Gateway Regional District. The town’s junior and senior high school students will be shipped elsewhere, most likely to Hampshire Regional in Westhampton.
“It’s a mess and it puts a huge financial strain on the budget.” she said of Worthington bidding the district adieu.
The impact of Worthington’s departure on the Gateway Regional budget is unclear at this point, although the remaining towns in the district will certainly be asked to foot a larger chunk of the bill, and Kennedy estimates the district will have to pick up around $1 million in slack.
State Rep. Stephen Kulik (D-Worthington) is familiar with the situation in the town, and believes it has been simmering for quite some time.
“The townspeople want an elementary school and have a very detailed plan,” he said. “They’ve spent the last few years with alternative education, and want to reopen a public elementary school.”
Kulik said that after the senate makes its decision on the bill, it will proceed to the desk of Gov. Deval Patrick, whose call on the matter Kulik believes is anyone’s guess.
“There’s no way to predict his decision at this point,” he said. “But he usually gives a lot of deference to legislation that reaches his desk from the house and senate.”
Kennedy is not as optimistic.
“We’ve got consequences whether it goes through or not,” she said regarding the senate’s decision in 2014. “The Governor likes school districts, so there’s no guarantee.”
Kennedy said that lobbying of the senate has already begun, and that she and other town residents have been in touch with western Mass. senators Don Humason, Jr. (R-Westfield) and Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst) to take a close look at the bill.
“They’ve done their homework. This has been a number of years in the making.” Kulik said regarding Worthington’s attempt to break away. “But each step through legislation is difficult to predict.”
