What's Happening?
The reality is that educating students in rural areas is more expensive than educating them in more populated areas.
In the 1960s, there was a push to regionalize rural school districts in Massachusetts to save the state money. This came with the promise that the state would fully fund the transportation for rural school districts--which is a sizable portion of our annual budget. This promise has never been fully met.
Additionally, until 2003, the state typically raised aid to meet rising costs in our districts through the state's Chapter 70 program (as it did for all schools in the commonwealth).
But between 2003 and 2004, the state cut its Chapter 70 aid drastically. No district has been spared, but rural districts, like ours, have suffered the most. In that single 2003 - 2004 year, Mohawk's aid was cut by 19.6% ($1.4M dollars)--and the state has barely increased its aid since then. In fact, in 2025 we are still receiving less that we did in 2003! (This funding formula is currently being discussed at the state level and could be a huge benefit to our district if it changed in the coming year, so stay tuned for how to advocate for better funding for our schools).
To make up the difference in the aid that the state has promised, but never paid, the towns in our district have had to continually increase their property-tax assessments. At the same time, student enrollment has generally been decreasing--though K-6 enrollment has held relatively steady for a decade, and total K-12 enrollment has been on a steady climb since 2021.
Clearly, something needs to be done.
Unfortunately, our School Committee has decided to give up on us all--and they've put serious time and money into it.
In January of 2024, the School Committee announced that they had partnered with a consulting company called BERK12 to come up with a "sustainability" plan for our district. With the help of the state and anonymous donors, the Committee has paid BERK12 $547,500 to develop a plan that calls for the closing of all our elementary schools, cutting up to 62 jobs (approximately 22% of the educational workforce), and building a new wing or school to create a single PreK-12 campus in the center of our 250 square mile district...at a cost of $26 - 145M.
The School Committee endorsed this plan in an 11 - 1 vote in May, 2025. It will now go before the voters of the towns sometime around or after the fall of 2026, and, in the meantime, the Committee is working hard to sell us all on the idea that shutting our schools down is our only hope.
And what about our state representatives (find yours here)? So far, they haven't said much about the plan to shut our schools down one way or another--but remember that we're in this mess because they and their colleagues have failed to follow through on their commitments to public education. Nevertheless, Massachusetts's lawmakers received an 11% pay raise in 2025, in addition to the pay they make above and beyond their salaries. According to the US Census, the median household income for Franklin County in 2025 was $74,547. Meanwhile, Representative Lindsay Sabadosa is on track to make over $100,00 this year, while Representative Natalie Blais and state Senator Paul Mark will get paid well over $120,000 each.
Why do our children, friends, and neighbors deserve less than the public servants whose sole responsibility is to represent us? Why is the state using taxpayer funds to hire consulting firms to advocate for our own foreclosure?
The problem is not our schools or our towns. It's not that we have children, good, middle-class jobs, and viable communities--the problem is that we've been abandoned.
If you're thinking to yourself, "None of this sounds sustainable. It sounds more like a foreclosure plan. We need to fight back," then you're not alone.
What Can We Do?
These are our schools, our towns...and our votes.
The studies by BERK12 and the recommendation by the School Committee leave many questions unanswered and even more questions unasked--and the first thing we need to do is to get informed.
Our Schools, Our Towns operates as a group of concerned citizens who that believe that voters should consider these questions before closing the schools comes up on the ballot, because once the schools are shut down, they are never coming back.
Consider these questions:
Jobs and Our Local Economy:
Cutting up to 60 jobs equals about 22% of the Mohawk Trail Regional School District and Hawlemont Districts total workforce. How would that reduction affect our local economy? What do the teachers' unions have to say about this? What position has Superintendent Sheryl Stanton taken on laying off so much of her staff?
How many of my friends and neighbors will lose their jobs? Where will they find new ones?
How many families will have to move when their district job is cut--and what effect will this have on district enrollment ?
What impact will the loss of 60 good jobs have on the local economy? How steeply will local business revenues drop when they lose the foot and car traffic related to families picking up and dropping off their children in town? (Case in point: Have you ever seen Shelburne Falls right after school gets out? The shops and streets are busy with grandparents, parents, caregivers, and groups of older elementary students walking and shopping. This is a tradition that generations of families have enjoyed.)
What is the Real Cost of the Proposed $20-145M Capital Project?
Considering how the state has failed to live up to their funding promises for rural education, how can we count on them to assist us with the propose multi-million dollar building project? What assurances do we have that this capital project won't end up raising our taxes?
BERK12 has said that the money saved from closing schools will have to be reinvested in the proposed capital project to build the new school, so how will there be more funding for improving educational programming? And will this really lighten our property tax load?
What will happen to these school buildings and who will pay for them? What kinds of repairs and code updates would be necessary to repurpose or sell the building and how do building codes change if a school is no longer a school? Will these buildings become a burden to our towns?
Town Culture and Effects on Students
How many families will see excessively long bus rides? It's a long way from the edges of towns like Hawley, Heath, Plainfield and Colrain to the proposed site of the new school. Some of our secondary students from these areas already ride two buses to get to school (a smaller bus feeds into the larger bus and these students may already be on the bus for an hour). Is that reasonable for young children?
What happens if your student misses the bus? How long will your car ride be, and what effect will this have on your ability to make it to your job on time? What happens if your student needs to get picked up in the middle of the day? Or from an after-school event that gets out before the working day is over?
Since 80% of the proposed staff cuts will take place at the elementary level, how will the increased caseloads of our special education teachers, interventionists, and specials teachers (Art, Music, PE, and Library/Technology) affect the education of our elementary students?
Fewer teachers means larger classes--what effect will this have on teacher burnout and retention?
Will preschool families find a way to drive their children to the central campus if it's such a long distance from home (transportation isn't provided for preschoolers) or will they choose to educate their children somewhere else? Will these families find other preschools closer to home or closer to the caregivers' jobs?
How many families will choice out of the school district if these changes happen?
What would my town look like without the local community gatherings at the school that are town traditions (concerts, potlucks, ice cream socials, musicals, fun runs, etc.)?
Are young families likely to move to towns with no schools in them? What effect will shutting our schools have on the long-term viability of our towns?
If public education is suffering across the state, and is difficult to fund in rural districts, where are our elected officials? What are they doing, and what would it look like if our elected officials really stood up for us? I want representatives that fight for my family and my town, what about you?
What Can I Do?
The School Committee has said that no one has told them, "only over my dead body will you close my school." We say: we live here in these towns, now. We want good lives for our children, our friends, and our neighbors, and we want a future for our community.
We want our schools to stay open because we deserve and need vital schools in our towns.
Consider the questions we propose and ask more. Tell your neighbors about your concerns and join us in our efforts to organize so everyone has an accurate picture of what is at stake.
Join our email list and come to an organizing meeting or attend the next round of informational meetings hosted by BERK12 and the School Committee.
Email osot.info@gmail.com to get on our email list to help us plan how to maintain our local schools.
We hope to have events put on by our members and supports while also showing up at town and school committee meetings to show support for our schools.