While the Six Town Regionalization Planning Board awaits feedback from the state on its proposed regional agreement, it is also preparing assessment models for the potential Great River Regional School District.

The board expects to receive its proposed agreement back from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education within the next few weeks. In the meantime, though, it has re-engaged with The Abrahams Group to calculate 10 potential assessment models for a new regionalized school district comprised of Bernardston, Gill, Leyden, Montague, Northfield and Warwick.

In 2023, the board contracted with The Abrahams Group to lay out potential assessments for the district, but with a changing environment, board Chair Alan Genovese said members wanted to get updated numbers. The board approved the work with The Abrahams Group at its Tuesday evening meeting.

“They’re going to revisit all the financial aspects that went into the methodologies and the calculating of the 10 assessments,” Genovese said Wednesday.

While those calculations are undertaken, the board will likely receive comments from DESE on its proposed regional agreement for the school district. Once those comments are back, Genovese said the board will see if amendments need to be made before seeking final approval from the state.

From there, he said the Six Town Regionalization Planning Board will conduct a multi-pronged community engagement effort in September, as members aim to bring the regionalization proposal to voters in communities at separate Special Town Meetings this fall. All six towns must approve the warrant article for the new district to be formed.

The public will soon start seeing flyers around their towns, as well as social media posts sharing information about the proposal. Additionally, there will be several public forums in the coming months to refresh residents on the board’s background, progress and proposal.

The Six Town Regionalization Planning Board has been working toward creating a new regional school district that would combine the Gill-Montague and Pioneer Valley regional school districts, as well as Warwick Community School, into one entity. The board was formed by the towns in 2019 and its progress was slowed by the pandemic.

If the “super-regional” school district forms, high school students would attend Turners Falls High School and middle school would be held at Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield. The local elementary schools would continue to operate.

As the process moves forward, Genovese said the board’s goal is to try to increase opportunities for students that they may have lost access to in the past — such as variety of class selection, sports and other extracurricular opportunities — due to declining enrollment.

“None of those things address the issue of enrollment and having a critical enrollment of students,” Genovese said. “The fundamental reason why we went into this was to address the enrollment issue and the implications of it. … It’s about enrollment, and that drives finances and it drives what programs you have available.”

For more information about the potential Great River Regional School District and the Six Town Regionalization Planning Board, visit its website at 6towns.org.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.