HUNTINGTON – It was a contentious year for the Gateway Regional School District, as 2014 saw the town of Worthington formally withdraw from the seven town district it once composed with the likes of Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery and Russell.
After the unanimous passing of a home rule petition allowing Worthington to unilaterally withdraw from the 50-year old district brought forward by Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, during an informal session of the House in late 2013, the wheels of Worthington’s withdrawal have been turning throughtout 2014, culminating with the passing of the bill through the state Senate in late April and the bill being signed into law by Gov. Deval L. Patrick in early May.
Meanwhile, the GRSD School Committee has been fighting tirelessly, like a spouse on the brink of divorce, for the district to “stay together for the kids.”
Even though the ink on Patrick’s signature has dried, Worthington cannot leave Gateway and join another regional district until needs conferences have been mediated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) with the town and the current district.
Earlier this month, over 100 people – members of the district’s administration, school committee and residents of the district’s member towns – attended their needs conference with Christine Lynch and Jay Sullivan, DESE’s governance and facilities program manager and executive director of school finance and district support center, in the auditorium of Gateway Regional High School to evaluate and assess the impact of the departure of the town of Worthington from the district.
“I think last night’s meeting went really well,” said School Committee Chair Michelle Crane at that time, adding that parents and town officials were ‘very good’ about articulating the financial challenges the district would face in the event Worthington goes to another regional district. “I felt we had pretty good attendance and the back and forth with DESE was pretty good. People had a lot of positive things to say about the district.”
According to Stephanie Fisk, business manager for Gateway Regional, about 30 people voiced their concerns to DESE at the conference. DESE will be accepting written statements until the end of January 2015 from those expressing their opposition to the Worthington withdrawal.
Of the Gateway District’s legislative delegation, only state Rep. William Smitty Pignatelli, D-Lenox, who represents the towns of Blandford and Russell, was in attendance.
“It would have been nice to have more legislators there and not just Smitty,” said Gateway Superintendent Dr. David Hopson, who added that Kulik was not in attendance at the conference. “We are represented by a fairly large number of legislators across two counties and to only have one show up…”
Pignatelli said that the meeting was “very productive.”
“DESE has got to really step up to the plate and resolve the educational issues we have that go way beyond Gateway – Gateway is just the tipping point,” he said. “The Governer cut regional school transportation, which is very severe for Gateway. (Gateway) was a late budget, so they budgeted 100 percent of what the legislature finally approved.”
That 9C budget cut to regional transportation to the tune of $18 million has put Gateway in a $241,000 hole that may result in the laying off of seven teachers.
Regarding the conference, Pignatelli said he felt that those in attendance laid out their concerns well to DESE.
“I think it’s time for DESE to get to work and fix this thing once and for all,” he said. “There are certain things the legislature can do to provide fiscal relief, but that is still several months away.”
“No more time for talk,” said Pignetelli. “It is time to fix the damn thing.”
