Worthington withdrawal clears House

 

By Mike Donovan

 

HILLTOWNS–In an informal session of the state House of Representatives, five representatives, including Representative Steve Kulik, of Worthington, passed H.3574, “An Act relative to the withdrawal of the Town of Worthington from the Gateway Regional School District.”

Kulik and Worthington’s state senator, Benjamin Downing, wrote the bill after a town meeting in Worthington voted unanimously to seek home rule legislation allowing it to leave the district.

Worthington has a number of complaints, particularly the closing of the R. H. Conwell Elementary School in 2010, and the extra cost a term in the state’s formula to determine a town’s contribution to a district, which takes a town’s income levels into account. Worthington is said to be paying considerably more to the district than it would if it had the same income levels as the other towns.

At Annual Town Meetings last spring, the other six district towns unanimously voted down Worthington’s request to leave the district due to the financial impact the withdrawal would have. The loss of Worthington students would not reduce the district’s operating costs significantly, leaving the other six towns to make up the difference.

Kulik has said he will look for ways to reduce the financial impact of Worthington’s withdrawal on the other towns in the district.

Estimates provided by the Gateway District indicate Blandford’s education costs would rise by about $100,000; Chester’s by $136,000; Huntington’s by over $200,000; Middlefield’s by $43,000; Montgomery’s by nearly $72,000; and Russell’s by just under $200,000.

The bill now moves to the state senate, but no date for debate or a vote has been indicated. Our efforts to reach Representative Kulik before press time were unsuccessful.