WARWICK — Continuing discussions from two weeks ago, the Selectboard voted to create a Pro Tempore School Governance Committee that will develop plans for an independent elementary school, and appointed six new members.
The Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee voted in January 2020 to cease use of the Warwick Community School building and its 25-acre property, which is owned by Warwick, as a cost-saving measure, a decision that Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey Riley later approved. Since then, members of the Warwick Education Committee have been holding regular meetings in hopes of reopening the Warwick Community School as an independent elementary school.
Members of the Pro Tempore School Governance Committee will continue to conduct research and develop plans for the pending school. Town Coordinator David Young previously said this temporary group will function as a “forerunner” to a school committee, but wouldn’t have the legal standing. A school committee would be formed once the independent school is approved, and members would be filled through regular election.
Warwick Education Committee Chair Adam Holloway, who was recently appointed as a liaison for continued discussion between the town and DESE, brought a list of names for nomination during the Selectboard meeting on Monday.
“Last meeting we talked about starting the pro temp group, and my homework as I recall it was to come back with a list of names for that group,” he recounted.
Holloway volunteered to be on the committee himself, and presented five other names for nomination: Selectboard Chair Lawrence “Doc” Pruyne; Selectboard member Brian Snell; Finance Committee Chair Diana Noble; Alan Genovese, who currently serves on the Pioneer School Committee and the Six Town Regionalization Planning Board; and former Pioneer School Committee member Jessica Marshall.
The Selectboard voted unanimously to accept the configuration of the Pro Tempore School Governance Committee, and the six nominated members. The school committee structure will also include an advisory committee on governance and policy, which was also approved Monday.
“This is a very important vote, and it’s a vote that not many Selectboards ever make,” Pruyne said.
Current Greenfield School Committee member Susan Hollins, a former superintendent who is serving as a consultant to the Warwick Education Committee, noted it is “important to have parents represented — elementary and high school” on the Pro Tempore School Governance Committee, referring to Holloway and Marshall. Hollins also noted the connection to town government with Selectboard members is important not just to bring awareness of the budget, but “because the Warwick plan is for the town to take on some services currently provided by the Pioneer Valley school district personnel, such as technology, building and grounds, and payroll/accounts payable.”
“Warwick’s school proposal has some transformational features that will be interesting to small towns trying to redesign for sustainability of their town’s rural school,” Hollins said.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.