Educators' Concerns

This is a longer version of a one page info sheet that was handed out at the MDEA meeting to union members on 8/31/26.

Consolidation Concerns for Educators, Written by Educators

A group of educators from Colrain Central have met over the past few months to learn more about consolidation. After reading through countless documents, attending meetings, and talking with other staff, we learned:

1. It’s difficult to keep up with what’s happening. Many staff don’t understand the issue in detail.

2. Many staff don’t feel like the consolidation plan will affect the. 

3. Our union should help us protect our working conditions and our jobs and we need to get more active.

Our Top Concerns with the District’s Consolidation Plan (facts taken from the 2D8T website)

1. Consolidating to a single campus would put 530 - 560 elementary students in one building with elementary class sizes of 16 - 25 students. In fact, according to Hanover Research (one of the four consultants the School Committee has hired), elementary education suffers in schools with more than 400 students.

In the transition period, we would potentially have to cram the kids from one or two extra schools into BSE, or current BSE students have to move to another school. 

2. The current description of the new building is that it would be a K-3 wing. 4th - 6th graders would be moved into the existing Mohawk Trail building and there would be many spaces shared between our youngest and oldest students (the library, gym, potentially the cafeteria, etc). Some of our elementary buildings seem to be in better shape than Mohawk Trail, so is a loss.

And this is after Superintendent Stanton told a group of staff at a meeting that a new building can raise test scores more than anything teachers can do. We asked her to share her research with us, and she has failed to produce it. Whether or not we ever see her research, it felt like an insensitive thing to say to a group of hardworking educators. And now it doesn’t even sound like we’ll get a fancy new building, but simply some additional classrooms.

3. The plan calls for up to 65 job cuts and 52 of them would be at the elementary level. That’s like losing ½ - ⅓ of the staff from each of our elementary buildings. This means that everyone will feel the effects of people getting bumped and having to work in new roles, or with new colleagues. Sheryl Stanton has said that these cuts would come through attrition over the next few years, which means that you will have fewer and fewer staff in your buildings, while still supporting the same number of students. 

4. The consolidation plan is based on teachers only having 45 minute prep times. This doesn't align with our current contract, but it means that they’re making plans that would require a significant change to our contract. 

5. We have full preschool classes and some preschools have wait lists. Our elementary school populations have been holding nearly steady and there are more students in the elementary schools than the MS and HS. Why is the District so focused on changing what’s happening in the elementary schools when it seems to be working well?

6. Is the consolidation plan really the only option at this point? We got more money from the state this year than in any year in the recent past. 2D8T has said that with about $432 more per student, we could fill our funding gap. There is a statewide MTA effort to get more funding from the state. 

7. The consolidation plan won't save taxpayers money. Many of our educators are also taxpayers in these towns. The selectboard of Colrain has said on multiple occasions that if the town has to take over the school building, the maintenance of the building will cause taxes to go up. That same selectboard has said taxpayers should be concerned about the $300 per household increase that should be expected from the proposed Franklin Tech new building. Losing our local elementary schools won't save tax payers money.

8. Recently the District shared that if the plan fails, they will just work to close our schools and move 4th - 6th graders to MTRS. Union members could be working together right now to come up with creative alternatives to the District’s plan, to celebrate what’s working, and to figure out how to retain our secondary students. We should be asking ourselves if we want to get behind realistic cost-savings measurements like multigrade classrooms, looking at ways to save at the secondary level, or sharing administrators across buildings or districts. What creative ideas do you want to bring to the table?

9. Whatever we want to do, it will require our MDEA members getting more active. When we work together, we win!

10. The District thinks no one is paying attention. We should at least be joining the online School Committee and 2D8T meetings to show our presence. The 2D8T folks have also said that they don't anticipate being able to pass consolidation without the support of the teachers. Our participation matters.