Anyone who wishes to review the recommendations and commendations in the complete Massachusetts’ Association of Regional Schools (MARS) Gateway study can view this on the district’s website (www.grsd.org). It will be found on the “Presentations to the School Committee” page, along with a proposed action plan to address the many thoughts provided by these educational experts concerning the district, broken down by items for the school committee and items for the administration. In addition, the school committee was also able to review (and you can look at this as well on the website) the administrative response to the MARS Gateway Study. To suggest that the school committee is not aware of the recommendations, or is taking either no steps, or inappropriate steps, to implement these findings indicates a lack of understanding of the whole picture.
Gateway Regional School District Superintendent Dr. David B. Hopson.
The school committee is also aware of, and supportive of, the district’s work with the Rural School Coalition that is constantly evolving and continues to look at ways to share central office staff and duties across two or more school districts. As we pointed out in our review of the MARS Gateway Study, sharing positions in Gateway may be an excellent way to improve services but is very unlikely to save money; however, we continue to work towards potential sharing opportunities. Along the same vein, Gateway is working with another district to share our food services director, which has the potential for a small amount of savings between two small Western Massachusetts districts. As we’ve seen throughout the state, ironing out the many details of such a shared agreement requires much time and effort.
The fact that the school committee extended the superintendent’s contract for an additional three years does not prohibit the committee from joining in any central office collaborative efforts, including sharing a superintendent, as every administrative contract may be changed due to financial constraints. However, extending the contract means the school committee does not have to be concerned with potentially spending significant money on a superintendent search for several more years, leaves in place an administrative team that has moved three schools to a level one status in the state, has continued to develop district budgets that are millions lower than in 2009, and has made great strides in many areas including technology and school safety. In reality, and considering all of the alternatives, the school committee made an informed decision regarding administrative staffing that will not cost the district any more money over the next few years.
The overall question of sustainability is one that is being asked in every small and rural school system throughout Western Massachusetts, but in the end we’re not going to be able to create one ‘normal sized’ (by DESE standards) district of 5,000 students because of the distances between schools and the low density of students over the area. This does not prohibit shared services that many of us are looking at but is similar to the question asked at a GTAC meeting about why we have six towns that don’t share just one town hall, one selectboard, one fincom, one assessor’s office and so on. The size of our towns and school districts are a detriment to such radical consolidation. Furthermore, the totally erroneous statement that we’re providing teachers with pink slips (we’re not laying off anyone but rather not renewing certain teachers due to non-budgetary factors with the intent of replacing these staff members) is certainly not helpful in understanding the budget and district sustainability.
We concur with the findings of the MARS Gateway Study regarding teachers, administrators, and central office staff being overwhelmed and that the major factor impacting this is the increasing and onerous mandated reporting aspects that have little to do with providing day-to-day education to our students. Rather than spend much time dissecting politics at any level, or pointing out the flaws in certain arguments and trying to convince people there is a ‘correct’ view, I’d simply ask that individuals take the time to review the facts, whether this be through the Department of Revenue, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the MARS Gateway Report, or the Gateway 2025 surveys regarding town and school finances, operations, management, or any other aspect of town and school governance; ask any questions in an open manner and then make decisions based upon a more thorough knowledge of the situation. This is what our school committee members do to fulfill their duties as duly elected representatives from each of our member towns.
