Chatham, Harwich Win $25K Grant To Explore School Regionalization

by Alan Pollock

            In its effort to encourage the two districts to share resources, state officials issued a $25,000 grant to the Harwich and Chatham public schools to study regionalization.

            The funds, through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, will allow the districts to hire consultants or facilitators “to study the regionalization possibilities from a number of different directions,” Harwich Superintendent of Schools Dr. Carolyn Cragin said Friday.  The grant application was made jointly by Cragin and Chatham Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Ann Lanzo last November. 

            A partnership between the two districts provides “the potential for greater stability and new opportunities for students in Chatham and Harwich that a regionalized system would provide,” Cragin said.  The grant will allow that potential to be carefully analyzed “so that everyone will understand the options,” she said.

            Chatham School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Dykens said it’s too early to say whether regionalization will come to fruition, but making a careful study is a way that both towns can be “responsible stewards” of their future generations.  “We’re fighting an aging demographic in both towns,” Dykens said.  With declining enrollment, the Chatham and Harwich schools want to avoid the plight of Provincetown, which is steadfastly operating its own district for only a handful of students.

            “They’ve got courage for funding their schools, but the programs aren’t viable.  How can it be a viable program for the kids?” Dykens said.  A collaboration between Chatham and Harwich would yield better opportunities for students, both academically and in extracurricular offerings, he said.

            The consultants hired to carry out the regionalization study will explore the demographics of both towns, generating enrollment projections for each district, and will itemize the educational and extracurricular benefits from a consolidated district.  The study will also analyze operating budgets and facilities utilization under regionalization.

            Once the assessment is done, the study will examine the options for structuring a regional district, considering grade level configuration and staffing, and will propose a timeline for the transition.  The study will also help the towns produce informational materials for the public, and will include discussion forums to collect public input.

            School regionalization has been a topic of discussion between Chatham and Harwich since 1960, when Harwich approved the idea but Chatham rejected it.  At the request of the state, the two districts took up the topic again in the 1970s, but a joint committee never brought a proposal to town meeting.  In 1986, Harwich again approached Chatham but was rebuffed; Chatham then approached Harwich and two other districts about regionalization in 1992, but having recently completed building renovations, Harwich rejected the overture.  The next year, Chatham’s town meeting approved formation of a regional district planning committee, but Harwich town meeting tabled the proposal indefinitely.

            Cragin said it’s no secret that the most recent overtures by Harwich are linked to the deterioration of its 45-year-old high school (see related story), recently judged to be in need of replacement.  The project could cost $60 million, Cragin said, but if the new building serves Chatham and Harwich students, the state would reimburse an additional 6 percent of the project cost. 

            “That’s a lot of money,” Cragin said.

            Dykens said Chatham voters shouldn’t just focus on the new school in Harwich.

            “They do have a lot to gain, but we would too if there was a new high school built,” he said.

            Under one possible configuration, Chatham’s current middle-senior high school would become a regional middle school, and the new school to be built in Harwich would be used as a joint high school.  Both towns would retain their current elementary schools, and the current Harwich middle school would be decommissioned.

            Given the economic crisis, Dykens said he believes there is more political will for regionalization between the two districts than ever before.

            “Conceptually, it’s a wonderful notion,” he said.  “However, the devil’s in the details, and it’s in the financial details.”  This study should help clarify some of those potential conflicts, Dykens said.

            But some form of resource sharing appears to be clearly beneficial to both districts, he added.  Harwich High has a superior drama club, and Chatham offers some specialized advanced placement classes not available in Harwich.  “I can think of a whole host of synergies,” Dykens said.

            Cragin said she initially opposed the idea of regionalizing the two districts, and made that viewpoint clear to state officials.  But after some joint meetings between officials from the two towns, Cragin said she became more open to the idea.

            “We are stronger and more stable than we are separately,” she said.

3/5/09