HAMPDEN — The Hampden Selectboard reviewed the final proposed changes to the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District Regional agreement and found that several sticking points remain.
One major issue is sharing capital costs for Wilbraham Middle School. The change would consider schools for students in grades 6-12 to be regional if students from both towns attend them. All middle school students educated in the district are enrolled at Wilbraham Middle School. The capital expenses for regional schools are shared among the towns. As proposed, the responsibility would be split along district enrollment lines, which is currently 81.3% students living in Wilbraham and 18.7% Hampden residents. There is no outstanding capital debt for the school.
“I just have a tough time investing in a building [Hampden does not own],” Selectboard member Craig Rivest said. Chair Donald Davenport said the alternative argument is that Hampden children use the building, and residents should want it to be “efficient, safe and clean.”
Rivest countered, “Let’s give them back [Thornton W. Burgess School] and move our kids back here.”
Hampden leadership and the school district recently agreed to end the district’s lease of Thornton W. Burgess School. In 2017, the district closed Thornton W. Burgess School’s program of studies for grades 6-8. Instead, it housed the district’s transition and life skills program for students between the ages of 18 and 22. After a lengthy lawsuit by Hampden, the district and the town came to a settlement.
It is questionable whether there would be enough students to attend a reopened Thornton W. Burgess. A couple years ago, the middle school enrollment at Green Meadows School had dropped to single digits in some grades, leading to an inability to provide parity for students between Green Meadows and Wilbraham Middle School. The remaining students were transferred to the latter of the two buildings.
Town Administrator Brian Domina said both towns would need to approve funding for capital projects for the middle school, just as they do for Minnechaug Regional High School. Before the towns vote on the regional agreement, Rivest said he wanted to have an air quality test performed. Wilbraham Middle School experienced a mold problem at the start of the 2024-25 school year.
The U.S. Constitution includes a “one-person, one-vote” requirement. To achieve that, the district has proposed a weighted voting system based on the number of residents in each town as a portion of the total in both towns. As the population currently stands, each of the two Hampden committee members would have 85% of a vote and Wilbraham members would each have one vote. The population would be reviewed regularly to maintain the proportion of weight.
Under this system, a vote by the full committee of seven would need four members to pass. If six members were present, a passing measure would require four votes or three Wilbraham member votes. With five members present, three votes would be needed to pass an issue. The math begins to become more complicated if there is a minimum quorum of four members. If there were three or more members from Wilbraham, a simple majority of three votes would be needed to approve an issue. However, if the four members are comprised of two from each community, a measure could pass with three votes or an affirmative from the two Wilbraham members.
“The five to two, I thought, was supposed to take care of the disparity in the [town] sizes. And then to do this on top of it, it seems like it’s just doubling up on it,” Selectboard member John Flynn said.
Rivest said that, as he read the constitutional requirement, weighted voting is not mandatory. He asked that the district cite the legal requirement in the constitutional code.
Moving on, Davenport said he did not understand why the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education wanted the July 1 beginning of School Committee terms spelled out on the ballot. He reasoned that no other elected position has its term start date listed. The town would likely “push back” on that provision as written in the agreement.
