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Municipal Services Ayer, Shirley to form regional school district
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Voters in Ayer and Shirley have cleared the way for the towns to create a regional school district that will begin operations for the 2011-2012 school year.
The new K-12 district, the first to be approved in Massachusetts since 2001, drew strong support in both communities during special town meetings held simultaneously on March 6. In Shirley, the vote was 508-161; in Ayer it was 287-33.
School officials in Shirley project that the regional school district will save the town nearly $1 million over five years. Shirley lacks a high school of its own and currently sends its students on a tuition basis to Ayer High School and Lunenburg High School. Under the regionalization plan, the Ayer school will be converted to a regional middle and high school, with a new science and technology wing.
For cost-comparison purposes, Shirley looked into building a high school of its own, sending its middle school students to other communities, and making no changes at all.
“No matter what numbers we put in, in terms of resources regionalization came out as the least expensive option,” said Shirley Superintendent Malcomb Reid.
In a letter published in a local newspaper prior to the vote, the Ayer School Committee projected that the financial benefit to Ayer over a five-year period will exceed $500,000.
“Regionalization provides Ayer with a much more cost-effective way to address the much-needed improvements to Ayer’s school buildings,” the School Committee letter stated.
The School Committee pointed out that the Massachusetts School Building Authority formula provides greater assistance to renovation projects in regional school districts. The letter also noted that the debt burden resulting from renovating the high school would be much heavier if Ayer were to shoulder it alone.
The Patrick administration, meanwhile, has allocated $300,000 in federal stimulus funds to assist with costs related to creating the regional school district. Reid said the state also enabled the two towns to create a transitional regional school committee that will exist alongside the towns’ current school committees through the end of this fiscal year, when the permanent six-member regional school committee will take office.
Creating the transitional committee will move up the date when the two communities will be eligible for state assistance for school transportation costs, according to Reid.
Original plans called for a third community, Lunenburg, to be part of the regional district. Lunenburg is now exploring the possibility of joining the North Middlesex regional district, which currently comprises Ashby, Pepperell and Townsend.
The towns of Manchester-by-the-Sea and Essex were the last to form a new K-12 regional school district, in 2001, according to Heidi Guarino, chief of staff at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Guarino suggested that regional school districts are likely to become more common in the years ahead, as communities continue to face serious budget constraints.
Municipal Services Ayer, Shirley to form regional school district
Back to Resources section
Ayer, Shirley to form regional school district
Voters in Ayer and Shirley have cleared the way for the towns to create a regional school district that will begin operations for the 2011-2012 school year.
The new K-12 district, the first to be approved in Massachusetts since 2001, drew strong support in both communities during special town meetings held simultaneously on March 6. In Shirley, the vote was 508-161; in Ayer it was 287-33.
School officials in Shirley project that the regional school district will save the town nearly $1 million over five years. Shirley lacks a high school of its own and currently sends its students on a tuition basis to Ayer High School and Lunenburg High School. Under the regionalization plan, the Ayer school will be converted to a regional middle and high school, with a new science and technology wing.
For cost-comparison purposes, Shirley looked into building a high school of its own, sending its middle school students to other communities, and making no changes at all.
“No matter what numbers we put in, in terms of resources regionalization came out as the least expensive option,” said Shirley Superintendent Malcomb Reid.
In a letter published in a local newspaper prior to the vote, the Ayer School Committee projected that the financial benefit to Ayer over a five-year period will exceed $500,000.
“Regionalization provides Ayer with a much more cost-effective way to address the much-needed improvements to Ayer’s school buildings,” the School Committee letter stated.
The School Committee pointed out that the Massachusetts School Building Authority formula provides greater assistance to renovation projects in regional school districts. The letter also noted that the debt burden resulting from renovating the high school would be much heavier if Ayer were to shoulder it alone.
The Patrick administration, meanwhile, has allocated $300,000 in federal stimulus funds to assist with costs related to creating the regional school district. Reid said the state also enabled the two towns to create a transitional regional school committee that will exist alongside the towns’ current school committees through the end of this fiscal year, when the permanent six-member regional school committee will take office.
Creating the transitional committee will move up the date when the two communities will be eligible for state assistance for school transportation costs, according to Reid.
Original plans called for a third community, Lunenburg, to be part of the regional district. Lunenburg is now exploring the possibility of joining the North Middlesex regional district, which currently comprises Ashby, Pepperell and Townsend.
The towns of Manchester-by-the-Sea and Essex were the last to form a new K-12 regional school district, in 2001, according to Heidi Guarino, chief of staff at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Guarino suggested that regional school districts are likely to become more common in the years ahead, as communities continue to face serious budget constraints.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
