GRANBY — The Select Board met with the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education Monday night to begin discussions of school regionalization as towns along Route 202 grapple with predicted looming financial crises next fiscal year.
“I don’t have the specifics on the 2027 budget, but [Finance Committee Chair] John Libera led me to believe that it’s going to be exceptionally grim,” Select Board Chair Mark Bail said.
Bail explained to the three DESE representatives at the meeting that capital needs of the Granby Junior Senior High School and rising budgetary costs have encouraged the district to explore regionalizing.
However, Jay Sullivan, associate commissioner of the School Finance and District Support Center, noted that most municipalities today regionalize to maintain academic opportunities, not for financial or capital issues.
“It might cost a little bit more in a regional school district,” said Christine Lynch, governance and facilities program manager for the state, “but you’re able to maintain those kind of services that you were worried about having to cut.”
Financial challenges
The financial struggles continue to mount for the three town’s along the Route 202 corridor, all of which are facing steep health insurance costs of 40% in the current fiscal year after insurance provider Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust drained its reserves to cover large claims and GLP-1 drugs. As insurance rates are expected to rise again in fiscal 2027, the three towns — Granby, Belchertown and South Hadley — have begun to dig into their budgets to cover incoming deficits.
Those unexpected mid-year increases come at a time that all three towns have struggled to close financial gaps in recent years. In recent weeks, South Hadley’s Budget Task Force has been analyzing the feasibility of a Proposition 2½ override in the face of an estimated $4 million budget deficit and Belchertown has opted to close Cold Spring School to save $500,000 a year. Now, Granby is investigating the possibility of regionalization its school district.
“I don’t think anybody’s saying we’re going to regionalize,” Select Board member Glenn Sexton said. “We just need to look at options.”
The first step in regionalization, Lynch explains, is to form a Regionalization Planning Committee to analyze the feasibility of regionalization and identify any prospective partners. The three-person committee would weigh the pros of a regional district, like a single budget with regional staff, against the cons, such as loss of community voice and lower state-aid contributions. The committee would also hold public forms with other towns and residents to gather interest and public comment.
If the committee finds that regionalization benefits the town, communities involved would create a Regionalization Planning Board to discuss logistics and continue public outreach. The board would eventually draft a regional school district agreement for DESE. If the state department approves the final draft, the agreement would then advance for approval at Town Meeting in each participating town.
Another option, should Granby not want to regionalize, is to cease offering 7-12 education and “tuition-out” their students to other districts. However, this means that Granby would have to pay out-of-district tuition for at least 200 students, which costs upward of $10,000 per student. The town would also be required to fund transportation, which he said is the fastest growing expense on most school budgets.
If Granby were to regionalize with another school district, Sullivan noted that the town would enter into an obligation to upkeep facilities as well. The percentage each town pays is based mostly on enrollment. School Committee Chair Jennifer Bartosz said that most school buildings in the area have capital issues.
“South Hadley High School is in bad shape too,” she said. “They just had this crazy remediation project for mold, and they didn’t do all of the things that they were going to do. I don’t think there’s a way that you’re ever going to get away without having to be on the hook for a building.”
Tough decision
Granby has been down this path before. In the 1990s, the town and South Hadley made it to the end of the regionalization process before South Hadley voted the agreement down at Town Meeting.
“Thing have changed a lot,” Bail said. “I think over the last two years of budget crunching, people have much more of an appetite.”
Bartosz said that Granby sent out feelers to 11 municipalities in the area two years ago, but none of those communities expressed interest in regionalization. The inquiry, however, did spur shared special education services with Hadley for a year, until high rates eventually nullified any cost savings.
As Granby continues to consider regionalizing its school district, Bartosz also suggests hiring an inspector to catalog all the issues with the Junior Senior High School. It may be possible, Bartosz said, to address the issues using the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s repair program without being required to come into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“A new high school is a pipe dream. I think most people recognize that,” she said. “But we haven’t explore fixing the high school enough to know for sure.”
The Select Board and School Committee will hold a joint meeting to discuss regionalization at an undetermined date.