2 DISTRICTS, 8 TOWNS
SUSTAINABILITY STUDY

UPDATE:
On April 16, 2025, the 2D8T Steering Committee, by a vote of 12-1, recommended that the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont School Committees adopt this PLAN OF ACTION.

The recommendation is that the two School Committees pursue the goal of organizing all students and staff onto a single campus (prekindergarten through Grade 12) on the Mohawk Trail Regional School (MTRS) campus. A two-phased approach was recommended, which could be fully realized over a period of 5-7 years. The recommendation outlines next steps and stresses that this aspirational vision for education in the 8 towns is ultimately up to voters. Please read through the full recommendation for details. 

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Thank you!

The 2D8T Steering Committee thanks all those who attended either a community or town meeting (a full list can of the meetings be found HERE). During those meetings, participants learned more about five options that are under consideration for sustainability of the districts.

Over the past several months, our project’s consulting team, BERK12, has completed in-depth financial and educational modeling of each option.

The results of feedback from the outreach sessions and an associated STAKEHOLDER SURVEY were presented at our April 3, 2025 meeting.

And if you missed the meeting and want to learn more, several session recordings are available for your review:

The Community Sessions Slide Deck can be found HERE.

A recording of the Buckland-Shelburne community session can be found HERE.

A recording of the All Virtual community session on March 6 can be found HERE. (recording starts about 10 minutes into session)

A recording of the Hawlemont Regional School community session on March 19 can be found HERE.

A recording of the Mohawk Trail Regional School community session on March 20 can be found HERE.

A recording of the Colrain Central School community session on March 26 can be found HERE.

OUR CHARGE.

To support ongoing study and analysis of the operating and organizational structures of the two Regional School Districts: Mohawk Trail & Hawlemont

OUR GOALS.

Our goals for the study are:

• To ensure that the communities that comprise our Districts are fully informed about the issues we face; 

• To gather input from our constituents; and 

• To create potential operating models that offer a more sustainable future for our schools and our member towns. These models will then be presented for community consideration and discussion.

OUR APPROACH.

We will partner with BERK12, a group with extensive experience in collaboratively developing short- and long-term solutions for rural schools and communities with the aim of ensuring the highest quality educational experiences for our children. With their expertise and assistance, this study will involve:

• Collecting (and/or updating) and analyzing data on current conditions within the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional School Districts in the critical areas of enrollment, fiscal conditions, educational programming, and building infrastructure, and project future conditions in each area.

• Developing, studying and evaluating potential future operating alternatives – including maintaining the current operating structure (i.e., two districts educating students in four separate buildings) – and assess the advantages and disadvantages of each.

• Proposing a long-term plan for providing a high-quality education for the Districts’ students in a way that is financially sustainable for the Districts’ taxpayers.

  Throughout, we will set as a priority a communications/engagement plan that ensures a consistent stream of information and encourages broad public involvement.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Our region, like many rural areas across the northeast, faces educational and fiscal challenges associated with:

• declining enrollment,

• rising operational costs,

• relatively flat state aid, and

• increasing needs of our student body.

We must continue to explore options and opportunities - in light of these challenges - to ensure our students receive a high quality set of educational experiences (academics, co-curricular, services and supports) they need to ensure success in college, career and life.

OUR VISION.

To be a region known for great schools that deliver high quality experiences for all our students in a rural setting where connected and caring residents have created a great place to live, educate and raise kids.

OUR PLAN.

We are partnering with BERK12 (Berkshire Educational Resources K12) to support this study over the next 16 months. The study will be broken into three stages with the following broad aims:

Stage 1. Organize work plan & Steering Committee, establish context of existing conditions, initial community engagement (Jan - May 2024)

Stage 2. Dive deeply into data and analysis across several functional domains (finance, educational quality, enrollment, buildings), generate a range of possible options and opportunities (May - Aug 2024)

Stage 3. Develop preferred (high potential) options that will be modeled and evaluated, additional community input and feedback, refine options and plan for next steps (Aug - Feb 2025)

Final report and plan for next steps (Feb - Jun 2025)

A draft BERK12 work plan can be found HERE.

OUR FUNDERS AND PARTNERS