Making a rare visit to the western reaches of the state today, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced an agreement between 17 towns and six school districts in southern Berkshire County to consolidate services.“I had three goals when this all started about a year and a half ago,” said State Representative Smitty Pignatelli. “Maintain our individual identities, enhance and increase services across school districts and town boundary lines and provide taxpayer relief. I believed it then. I believe it even stronger today.”
Pignatelli represents most of the towns and schools signing the agreement Tuesday as a member of the Massachusetts House.
“This is an exciting day,” Pignatelli said. “I told the governor, this is a historical day. The fact that 17 towns and six school districts have all agreed to the exact same language is unprecedented I think anywhere in Massachusetts, but certainly as a former county commissioner…unheard of.”
Local leaders met at Great Barrington town hall with Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito to sign the community compacts, an initiative to partner with municipalities launched earlier this year by the Republican administration across the commonwealth. Polito says the state is providing about $75,000 to the group.
“You select the best practices that you want to accomplish,” Polito said. “Professional development, technology to communicate better in the classroom and with each other and the curriculum that you will share is really going to have an impact on these students’ lives.”
A big focus will be combining IT systems and increasing efficiencies in hopes of saving schools tens of thousands of dollars, according to Pignatelli. He says things as simple as schools matching staff development and days off could be part of the effort. The Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Adams Community Bank, Lee Bank and the Berkshire Bank Foundation are chipping in about $25,000 to support the effort. State and local leaders say decreasing population and shrinking class sizes are forcing small communities to make changes in order to maintain services. Lenox Town Manager Christopher Ketchen outlined some of the efforts.
“There will no longer be as of January 1st a Lenox Building Department or a Lee Building Department,” Ketchen said. “There will only be a Lee/Lenox Building Department. In the towns of Sheffield and New Marlborough. These are towns that combined have fewer than 5,000 residents, but have more road mileage than some cities. They’re looking into sharing public works equipment. All across our region we are starting to see school districts talk about sharing staff and resources. I think that’s a wonderful thing because the possibilities are really endless.”
Berkshire Hills Regional School District, Farmington River Regional School District, Lee Public Schools, Lenox Public Schools, Richmond Consolidated Schools and Southern Berkshire Regional School District agreed to share services last year, but implementation has been on hold after a state grant was eliminated to close a budget gap. Committing to help along the way, Governor Baker says the region has turned the community compact initiative into more than the administration thought it could be.
“We cannot be a great state if we’re not made up of great communities,” Baker said. “That’s a fact.”
