FLORIDA, Mass. — The North Berkshire School Union voted to give member town Clarksburg a financial breather — at least for fiscal 2027.

 

Town and school officials had proposed changes last month as the town's assessment for the union administration climbed to 54 percent.

 

The "super" School Committee, after more than an hour of debate, voted 7-2 to raise the other four member towns' assessments by 2 percent, thus giving Clarksburg an 8 percent reduction.

 

Clarksburg officials had initially brought forward a proposal to set a base percentage for all the towns at 10 percent, with 5 percent for tiny Monroe, and then do the balance based on the current enrollment apportionment.

 

This was rejected by consensus and other proposals were hashed out at a recent subcommittee meeting. The 2 percent change was brought forward to Thursday's joint committee meeting, which is comprised of all the members of the town school committees.

 

"I do think it's important to come up with some sort of compromise, but I also believe that there's a lot of data that we need to start looking into throughout this one-year agreement that's going to help with a lot of these questions," said Savoy's Arleigh Cooper.

 

"I know that there's hesitation. We all looked at numbers at 10 percent at 5 percent I think there was maybe a 7.5 percent or maybe that was just my numbers on my own that I was calculating and even giving a small 2.5 percent for just a one year, I think shows Clarksburg, hey, we are willing to help you out. However, there's so much data that needs to be collected, and it's just too short of a window to do a large number."

 

Superintendent John Franzoni reminded the committee that this vote would be only for one year.

 

"What we need to do is to have that subcommittee, or some another subcommittee, really dig into the union agreement over the next six to eight months to update it," said Franzoni. "Because it really needs to be updated."

 

The union is made up of the elementary schools Clarksburg, Florida, Rowe and Savoy, and Monroe, which sends its students to Rowe. The towns support their own schools and pay into the union for administration — superintendent, special education, business manager, technology and support positions.

 

The debate on Thursday included how equitable the assessment could be between the towns, as some had middle school grades, and some might use more special education services, that it would skew the already equitable technology budget, or use up more of the administration's time. And there were questions of how an increase in the budget would affect the smaller towns further.

 

"Sometimes it doesn't matter what the size of the school is," said Franzoni. "Like Rowe's Finance Committee is a lot more involved than other finance committees that we have, so we have more meetings with them, although yesterday, I was meeting with the Savoy chair up in his workplace involved. So it this time of the year, there's all kinds of meetings going on."

 

Clarksburg's Town Treasurer Kelly Haskins said the town has also taken on financial work for the union through tracking payroll, billing insurance, and making sure invoices get paid in a timely manner.

 

"There's a lot of work that goes in from my side. And I don't know if each town is understanding that, that we are not compensated for, that my time is not billed out," she said.

 

A proposal was floated at one percent, but School Committee Mary Giron and Haskins said it wasn't enough.

 

"The whole reason that [Select Boar Chair Daniel Haskins] had brought this whole thing up is that we're bleeding," said Giron. "Everyone is I understand that, but we're at such a higher percentage at this point that the 1 percent from the others isn't going to help us that much, and it is just for a year.

 

"I believe that we need to look at things the way you're saying. ... but I also hear what John is saying that we can't do that tonight, and we need to do something for the next [fiscal] year."

 

Monroe School Committee member Kim Oakes objected that her town is only sending seven children to Rowe.

 

"I gotta be honest, I think that's crazy for us to almost double our amount paid for seven students. We don't own a school," she said, adding she's also on the Finance Committee. "They're going to say, 'what in the hell is happening that we should double ours?'"

 

Based on the 2 percent proposal, Clarksburg would shift from 54 percent to 46 percent; Florida from 17 to 19; Monroe from 5 to 7; Rowe from 13 to 15; and Savoy from 11 to 13. Based on this year's figures, it would be about a $50,000 savings for Clarksburg; the other towns would increase about $12,000.

 

Business Manager Jordan Rennell and Assistant Superintendent Tara Barnes had looked into apportionments in other school unions.

 

"No one has our numbers or our dynamic," said Rennell. "I ended up calling seven other unions in Massachusetts, six out of seven did just numbers per pupil, and it was in a ratio based on that, but they also had high schools and regionalizations embedded in their union. ... They also were quick to share their budget documents and everything from these towns, and it was interesting that they had triple the admin that we have."

 

In addition to a superintendent, they had at least two assistant supers and a business administrator with support staff and bigger budgets. Some had high schools with staff, and the Martha's Vineyard school union had developed a central preschool and special education program and used different formulas for special ed and enrollment.

 

"It was nice to see that there was another union kind of doing it to best to suit the needs of the towns that they're working with," she said, but noted "it wasn't apples to apples" with any of the unions.  

 

Franzoni said it was important to note that Clarksburg is one of the few districts in Berkshire County that's seen an increase in the resident number of students, and that "it's just magnified more because the other three schools have gone down."

 

"That's worked fine for us, I think, over the last seven years, but as this recent scenario has kind of played out, it certainly has skewed the percentage, much more significantly towards Clarksburg."

 

He added that if the state would fully fund the rural school aid at the requested $60 million, none of this would be necessary.

 

Rowe's Susie Zavotka motioned to approve the 2 percent change, which was then amended for fiscal 2027 only, and to research further on the apportionment. The vote was 7-2 with Oakes and Matt Stine of Rowe voting against. 

 

"I don't feel comfortable with, giving a significant decrease in taking on a significant increase. When we haven't really looked at this," said Stine. "I just don't like jumping into this so suddenly."