AMHERST — A mandate in the Amherst town charter calling for the Amherst School Committee to negotiate an amendment to the regional school agreement could have unintended consequences and be costly to the district, according to a memo from School Superintendent Michael Morris.
A recent discussion among members of the School Committee meeting prompted the committee to endorse a letter to the Town Council outlining what might happen if officials open up the agreement that guides how the secondary schools, including Amherst Regional Middle School, Amherst Regional High Schol and Summit Academy, are operated.
Those schools educate students living in Amherst, Pelham, Shutesbury and Leverett.
“Please provide us with guidance on how to proceed with this matter,” the letter sent following the committee’s Dec. 14 meeting reads. “We appreciate your collaboration and support of our work in the schools and want to support you in the best way possible in this regard.”
As the inaugural Town Council wraps up its three-year term, it wrote a letter to Morris citing a section of the charter, adopted by voters in 2018, that states, “the Amherst School Committee shall negotiate an amendment to the existing Regional School Agreement to bring its references to Amherst’s legislative and executive bodies into conformity with this charter.”
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said Tuesday that there is not much clarity about what has to happen, and he isn’t sure how the agreement might be revised and who will handle this work. The matter has not yet been a topic on the Town Council’s agenda.
School Committee members have expressed concern that reopening the regional agreement could be complicated, as other communities might be able offer their own input and views.
“Our sense is that there may be other areas of the agreement that some of the members would like to discuss, such as the assessment method,” Morris writes.
Annually, the regional assessment formula has been a topic wrangled over at so-called Four Town Meetings, where members from the select boards, finance committees and school committees, and now the Amherst Town Council, gather to discuss regional school topics.
The letter also notes that revisions to the agreement may need significant vetting by legal counsel, potentially three to five years of work, and any changes would also have to be submitted to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval.
