New England Public Radio

With Lanesborough Signed On, The Mount Greylock School Project Moves Forward

Voters in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, have approved their share of funding for the Mount Greylock Regional High School building project. School officials are now turning their attention to getting construction started.

The $10-million in funding for the Mount Greylock project passed by about 130 votes in Lanesborough. The approval ends months of uncertainty surrounding the future of the district–which also includes Williamstown. Last fall, Lanesborough considered sending its students to other districts. Mount Greylock School Committee chair Carrie Greene says construction could begin as early as this summer.

“We have an ambitious time table, but it’s doable,” Greene says. “We expect the new academic wing to be ready for students in the spring of 2018.”

The entire project, with includes renovating parts of the old building, is scheduled to be done by winter 2019.

Lanesborough Secondary Students To Continue Attending Mount Greylock

The Lanesborough, Massachusetts, school committee decided Thursday not to pursue an offer from the Adams-Cheshire Schools to send some students to that district.

Late this summer, the Adams-Cheshire district made an offer to Lanesborough to take on its students in grades seven through twelve, touting a possible cost savings. In the end, the Lanesborough school board decided to continue its decades-long relationship with Mt. Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown.

Carrie Greene is the chair of the Mt. Greylock School Committee and says the vote is a relief.

“It’s the decision I would have expected from the Lanesborough Elementary School Committee,” Greene says. “That committee has been very clear that they see no educational benefit whatsoever.”

Greene says the vote also allows planning of a new Mt. Greylock school building to move forward, with Williamstown, Lanesborough and the state sharing the costs.

Lanesborough Ponders Where To Send Secondary Students

As schools open across the region this week, the students in grades 7 through 12 in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, have suddenly, become more popular. One school district wants them and another hopes to keep them, and there’s a lot riding on where the kids end up.

Lanesborough has been sending its secondary students to Mt. Greylock High School in Williamstown for over five decades, with more than 160 attending classes there this year. Recently, the Adams-Cheshire district made a pitch to Lanesborough to send their students to its Hoosac Valley  high school instead. Adams Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco says with the money that would accompany the Lanesborough students, the school could expand academic offerings.

“Certificate programs, that students would go to Hoosac Valley [High School], and get a certificate in maybe nursing or business or STEM or engineering or something similar,” Mazzucco says. “As well, some expanded language offerings and there’s a couple of other things they’ve talked about as well.”

Money is a big part of this. Lanesborough’s town administrator, Paul Sieloff, says the cost of sending students to Mt. Greylock went up by about four percent this year. And if they stay with the current district, taxpayers could be on the hook for part of the cost of building a new high school. He says all options should be weighed, including paying tuition to send some, if not all, secondary students to the less-expensive Hoosac Valley.

“The town could potentially save $10,000 per student, per year,” Sieloff says. “Twenty or 30 students going up there would be a $200- to $300,000 savings, which is very significant.”

Meanwhile, in Williamstown, Mt. Greylock School Committee Chair Carrie Greene says she’s disheartened by the discussion. She says if Lanesborough left the district, the effects could be devastating.

“Without the kids in Lanesborough, there is no Mount Greylock,” Greene says. “There is no building project, there is no school district as we know it. We need each other in order to sustain the excellent programming that we have.”

The Lanesborough Select Board is scheduled to discuss its options later this month. It would likely take at least a few years before any changes are made.