COLRAIN, MA (FRANKLIN COUNTY NOW) — Tuesday evening, stakeholders in the Mohawk and Hawlemont school districts gathered virtually and at Colrain Central School to hear from Berk12 on the 2Districts8Towns, 2D8T, Sustainability Study and offer input. Last night was the first of four community feedback sessions slated for this spring, with more to come in the fall once data has been collected and options have been formulated for the districts’ future. 

Phase 2 of the 2D8T Sustainability Study is beginning with these community outreach meetings as part of the context and data collection as they begin to form the “world of possibilities” for the districts. Community members shared their perspectives on the current state of the schools, from their strengths to their challenges, and aspects of the schools they could not live without. Some themes that came out of these discussions were the strength of pride in the schools’ histories, having multiple generations attend the same schools; the teachers’ dedication to students and parents; declining enrollment limiting the class offerings and socialization; and the burden of rising operating costs on rural towns.

While the challenges facing the districts are not uncommon in Western Massachusetts, the group at Berk12 is confident they will be able to come up with a wide variety of options for the districts to then take and decide what they will do to sustain high quality education in western Franklin County.

Berk12 is a group formed by Berkshire County school stakeholders who came together when faced with similar issues as the Mohawk and Hawlemont schools are seeing now – enrollment decline and rising operating costs. They came together on a voluntary basis to meet on Saturdays over multiple years to work together on the sustainability of the district’s future and they hope to now help Mohawk and Hawlemont districts in the same way.

Fine more information on the 2D8T project, including committees open to the public and community outreach meetings at: https://www.2districts8towns.org/