Dr. David Hopson
I was pleased to attend a tree planting ceremony on April 25 to honor Lauren Champiney who recently passed away. Lauren was a fixture in the Littleville cafeteria and was much loved by the students, who did an outstanding job of writing and reciting poems in her memory. From Kindergarten to fourth grade, the students all put in a tremendous amount of effort and thought, which was reflected in their poems. With the entire school, and many guests, watching, Principal Megan Coburn and Lauren’s husband Allen planted the memorial tree. Our thoughts and prayers continue for the Champiney family as they move through this difficult period in their lives.
I also wish to take a moment to thank those parents who ensured that their children attended school on Friday, April 25 – a day that would have been part of their vacation if we hadn’t had such a terrific winter. Attendance at the elementary and middle schools was down somewhat and quickly tapered off at the higher-grade levels. However, the day will be able to count as one of the 180 required days due to attendance averaging at 70% across the district.
As I shared in an email to Gateway School Committee members and administrative staff, House Bill 3815 passed in the Senate on April 17 as amended by Senator Humason. On April 22, the amended bill was passed out of the third reading committee in the House and concurred by the House on the same day, essentially sending the bill to the Governor’s desk for further action. As most people know, this bill allows the Town of Worthington to withdraw from the Gateway Regional School District despite the fact that the other six towns in the district, at their annual town meetings, overwhelming voted not to allow Worthington to leave under the rules of the District Agreement.
The bill, as amended, requires a number of steps to be completed before Worthington leaves. These include filing plans for educating all of the children in the district (one for Worthington, the second for the remaining children in the district); agreement on Worthington’s costs to leave the district (including repayment costs to the Massachusetts School Building Authority); and a successful ‘Reorganizational Needs Conference’ convened by the DESE to look at 8 factors. These factors would measure the impact of Worthington’s withdrawal, current and future enrollment, inventory of all educational facilities, plans for the reimbursement of the capital expenditures for facilities located in Worthington, requirements for continued assessments to Worthington for district facilities previously paid for by Worthington, the administrative structure of the new district, the long-term fiscal impacts (including transportation, special education, vocational education, and personnel costs) and fiscal recommendations to hold harmless the remaining six district towns.
This is to be a comprehensive review of education in the seven towns encompassing a wide variety of constituent groups and the DESE will be required to file a report of its findings with the members of the General Court that represent each of the seven towns in the Gateway District to include “enhanced funding options for the remaining communities to maintain access to quality education for grades K-12.” My hope is that we can complete these items in a fair, equitable, and timely fashion so that there is the least impact on the education of all of the students in our seven towns.
