The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District School Committee approved a revised draft of the regional agreement on July 30.
Photo credit: Erin Dowding
WILBRAHAM — The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District School Committee approved revisions to the regional agreement between Hampden and Wilbraham with a 6-1 vote at its July 30 meeting.
The revisions were made after a July 23 joint meeting between the Wilbraham Select Board and Hampden Selectboard.
One of the largest changes in the agreement is in Section IV, clause “D”, which states that Wilbraham Middle School will be converted to a district-owned property if the Massachusetts School Building Authority and the two towns approve funding for the building’s core program project.
The section states, “The towns agree to cooperate in taking all steps necessary to effectuate the intent of this language, which is to transfer ownership and control of Wilbraham Middle School to HWRSD. The parties acknowledge that how best to effectuate the intent of the language will depend upon the project scope approved by MSBA, which could include renovations to the existing building; construction of a new building on the current site; or construction of a new building on an alternative site.”
The section also adds that the towns may execute the language’s intent through “conveyance of a smaller parcel than the entire approximately 63-acre parcel on which Wilbraham Middle School is located. The conversion to district-owned property will also involve the parties agreement to nullify any existing lease of the current Wilbraham Middle School by the district.”
Section IV, clause “E” is the second change, modifying capital cost apportionment for distinct-owned equipment and properties from “grades 9-12” to “grades served by the property” to be inclusive of the middle school.
School Committee Sean Kennedy said the School Committee should run the changes by Wilbraham’s Finance Committee and the Capital Planning Committee before voting.
“Not that I think we should hold this back any longer than it’s already been held back, but I don’t think that, especially capital, you know, really needs to be on board with this,” Kennedy said. “It doesn’t mean anything if they’re not going to abide by it.”
School Committee member Michael Tirabassi said it is very important for this to get to the fall Town Meeting, and that it wouldn’t make it in time if the committee did what Kennedy suggested.
“There’s no way that we would have stuff done before the middle of September and it wouldn’t be in time for fall Town Meeting,” Tirabassi said. “I think that’s important for the committee to say. I think this is very well written and it covers a number of eventualities … I’m hoping that the towns would be comfortable. By the towns, I mean the people at the Town Meeting. The select boards met and I think they have some degree of comfort with this, but really it comes down to Town Meeting.”
Hampden Selectboard Chair John Flynn said the last two joint meetings have been productive and there hasn’t been a chance to bring in any other boards.
“As Sean said, there are a lot of stakeholders in this process and we do want to get this done,” Flynn said. “We’ve talked about that, but perhaps with a short time frame where we have to set the agenda for a fall Town Meeting, this is a major, major step to bring in the stakeholders in a quick process over the summer. It might be challenging at this point.”
School Committee member Tim Collins said he is in favor of moving forward because he didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize getting the middle school taken care of. He did have concerns of overcrowding with an “exceptions” section in the agreement.
The section states, “students may also be accommodated in other schools within the district when approved by the child’s parents or guardians and the committee provided that the committee determines that such an assignment or reassignment is prudent, can be accomplished and is in the best interest of the student. In order to comply with applicable student privacy laws, such determinations will be made in executive session and kept confidential.”
“I just want to make sure and go on record that the reassignment being ‘prudent’ means we’re not going to overcrowd a school,” Collins said. “I wasn’t wasn’t here when [Thornton W. Burgess Middle School] disintegrated, but it put tremendous pressure on the middle school. I don’t foresee anything could be like that, but you never know, one of our elementaries may have a catastrophic failure and we may have to redistribute students, and it shouldn’t be just the student, it’s the whole student population that has to be considered.”
School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau said the committee should move forward with the agreement. She said it is a good step to say the School Committee voted and agreed to approve the draft and then bring it to other stakeholders and the community.
The committee then approved the draft, with Kennedy voting against it.
