NORTHFIELD — Warwick is one step closer to establishing its own school district, now that the Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee opted to accept necessary transition, tuition and retiree cost participation agreements last week.
Committee members on Thursday voted unanimously in favor of all three measures, which now go to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval. Chair Reina Dastous explained it is crucial that DESE give its blessing by Dec. 31, for Warwick to separate itself by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2023.
“We need this in front of DESE, fast,” said School Committee member David Young, a Warwick resident. “So I’d ask you to vote for it.”
“It’s been a long process, but (committee members) have done a tremendous amount of work over the past several months,” Dastous said on Friday.
The Pioneer School Committee voted in January 2020 to close Warwick Community School as a cost-saving measure. DESE Commissioner Jeffrey Riley approved this decision in May 2020. Since then, Warwick Education Committee members have met to develop plans with the goal of getting the school reopened.
According to the Rural School Redesign website, the next chapter of Warwick Community School would be place-based, meaning studies would be socially and environmentally relevant to Warwick. Officials plan for the school to be very small and the town does not plan to have teachers in front of classes teaching traditional lessons to a group of students all the same age. Instead, there will be individualized plans for each student to learn on their own.
While the goal is to reopen Warwick Community School as an independent elementary school, Dastous noted that the approved tuition agreement sent to DESE allows for Warwick students in grades seven through 12 to attend Pioneer Valley Regional School if they choose, with the town covering the tuition costs.
“It feels good to be at this point, where we have an agreement,” Dastous said on Friday. “We feel good where we’re at.”
At a Special Town Meeting earlier this month, Warwick voters adopted an article authorizing the Selectboard “to enter a long-term and renewable contract … that recognizes and defines the annual settlement of Warwick’s portion of the regional school district’s pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) attributable to Warwick’s former membership.” Another adopted article detached Warwick’s scholarship committee from Pioneer Valley Regional School District membership.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.