CUMMINGTON — Town residents will be asked to consider approving a proposed $71.8 million high school building project for the Central Berkshire Regional School District at a special Town Meeting in April, though it comes at a time when Cummington is trying to withdraw from the district.
If approved, the new building would replace the 58-year-old Wahconah High School in Dalton. For some in Cummington, it is not the project itself that is problematic, but rather the voting process, as well as the timing of the proposed school building project.
Traditionally, capital projects must be unanimously supported by all of the seven towns in the district, which covers Becket, Cummington, Dalton, Hinsdale, Peru, Washington and Windsor.
However, like the vote for the school building feasibility study done in April 2017, the upcoming vote will be a popular vote — requiring a favorable vote from the majority of voters from all seven towns.
“Our regional agreement calls for capital projects to be voted on by every town, and each town has to approve the project at a Town Meeting,” Ad Hoc Educational Committee member Josh Wachtel, of Cummington, said. “The district now says that a provision in the Mass General Laws allows them to hold a popular vote.”
Cummington Select Board member Bill Adams said that he believes most town residents are unaware of the change to the traditional voting method.
“It is very frustrating. There has been little to no conversation about this and no open transparency in my view,” Adams said, noting that he was speaking as a resident and not in his official capacity as a selectman. “People really need to know what is going on.”
If the project passes, Cummington would have to pay a share of the cost of the high school based on the number of students that attend, Adams said.
Central Berkshire Regional School District Superintendent Laurie Casna could not be reached for comment.
The town has been trying to withdraw from the Central Berkshire Regional School District since the district closed Cummington’s Berkshire Trail Elementary School in 2015.
Since then, the majority of the town’s roughly 100 K-12 students have opted to go to several other schools outside of the district, leaving approximately 26 students attending elementary and high school in Dalton.
“With students attending over five different schools, it has really affected our sense of community,” Wachtel said.
While Central Berkshire Regional voted to allow Cummington to begin its withdrawal from the district two years ago, the town and the district have not been able to agree on how much the town will owe the district upon its departure.
“In their first estimate, they said the town’s liability would be $2.2 million and that was later reduced to $1.5 million,” Adams said. “That is an immensely absurd amount of money — it’s our entire town budget. We believe that what we owe is closer to $480,000 to $575,000.”
Adams says that between the change in the voting procedure and the delay in negotiating the town’s liability to the school district, Cummington is over a proverbial barrel.
“It is like they are trying to keep us at bay until the vote is taken,” he said. “Here we are in Cummington trying to get out of the district, and now we are worried that we will wind up being obligated for some portion of the new school.”
The cost of a new high school to residents of member towns will be based on their share of overall student enrollment. The Massachusetts School Building Authority will reimburse approximately 60 percent of the $71.8 million price tag.
Wachtel said that Cummington joined Central Berkshire Regional in the mid-1960s as the only member town from Hampshire County. Many residents at that time worked in Dalton and Pittsfield, and it made sense to send their children to that school district.
Today, families are more oriented toward Hampshire County.
When the town eventually leaves Central Berkshire Regional, Adams says officials hope to form agreements with the Worthington School District for children to attend the R.H. Conwell Elementary School in Worthington and Hampshire Regional High School in Westhampton.
“We have no such agreements in place now because we can’t do that until we get permission to leave the district,” he said.
As for the upcoming school building proposal, Adams says he is making it his mission to help inform the residents about the project and the departure from the traditional town-by-town voting procedure.
“People need to be aware, and, no matter where they stand on the issue, they need to get out and vote,” he said.