HUNTINGTON – The Gateway Regional School District School Committee is shuffling the deck this summer, as committee member Michele Crane of Blandford has been selected as the new chairwoman.
Crane was approved as chairwoman at the committee’s last meeting on July 9. She will preside over a district in flux, as it will now be officially be losing the town of Worthington, a longtime member of the school district.
Crane takes over for Gretchen Eliason of Worthington, who relinquished the position for personal reasons, citing time commitment concerns.
“Every year we reorganize the board, because the terms are for a year,” said Crane. “She (Gretchen) decided not to run and I was the only person nominated for chair.”
“We did our rearranging of the board and committees. We have a few things up in the air, because not everyone was there,” said Crane. “So next meeting, we’ll be able to solidify who is on what subcommittee.”
Crane said that Martha Otterbeck of Chester was appointed by the committee as vice chair, but wasn’t able to attend the meeting. Crane said she is attempting to meet with Otterbeck, who has yet to officially accept the new position.
While the Worthington withdrawal was discussed briefly, the main topics of conversation at the meeting were board rearranging and budgetary concerns, namely a failed attempt to update a new school budget.
“It was 11-1 and we need 12 affirmative votes to pass a budget. So we’re working off a 1/12th budget at this time,” Crane said. “The way things are going right now is that we’ve submitted our education plan for how Gateway will continue to educate the students in the remaining six towns.”
“Our feelings are that we should submit a plan very similar to how we’ve been operating all along,” she said. “We want to assume that the state will realize that we need some financial help so we can continue how we’ve always been doing it. We don’t want to have to make cuts due to the Worthington withdrawal.”
With Gateway and Worthington both readying their plans for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education next month, both parties are prepping for a needs conference which will mediated by the DESE. Crane is still unsure about the process.
“I am still rather unclear as to what exactly that’s going to be. We need more information,” she said. “We got our education plan in at the right time, and now we’re just waiting to hear from the DESE.”
The Gateway School Committee’s next meeting is slated for Wednesday, August 27, in Worthington in keeping with committee policy of visiting each of the district’s towns once during the meeting schedule.
