SHELBURNE FALLS, MA (FRANKLIN COUNTY NOW) — The Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional School District’s sustainability study completed by the Berk12 Research Team has released the final recommendations voted on 12-1 by the 2districts8towns Steering Committee.
The recommendation is for the school committees to pursue organizing all students Preschool through 12th grade and staff onto a single campus at Mohawk Trail Regional School. The transition is recommended to take place over two phases in the coming five to seven years:
Phase I
● Create a single district, merging Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont, with one school commi6ee.
● Combine all Grade 6 students into a reorganized middle school (Grades 6-8) at MTRS.
● Consolidate some combina/on of elementary schools, with assignment of elementary students by
geography (closest school) rather than strictly by town lines.
● Apply to the MassachuseKs School Building Authority (MSBA) for funding to create/remodel
space(s) on the MTRS campus for elementary school use.
Phase II
● Move all elementary grades to the remodeled/newly constructed spaces on the MTRS campus.
The benefits of the recommended steps forward, as stated by the 2D8T Steering Committee, include: equitable access to expanded resources, maximizing efficiencies in finances, larger cohorts, reducing assessments to towns, scaling of unique program offerings to more/all students, addressing aging facilities.
In the recommendations statement, the 2D8T Steering Committee writes, “We believe that the educational and financial advantages that would come from combining our districts and organizing onto a single campus would surpass what we might expect from any other solution.”
The recommendations will ultimately need approval from each town’s voters.