BUCKLAND — Implementing a single-campus model for the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional school districts is one step closer to becoming a reality.

Both the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont school committees have voted to accept the recommendation of the 2 District, 8 Town Steering Committee, or 2D8T, to continue pursuing a single-campus district, which could potentially save the district as much as $5.3 million. With approval from the two boards, the steering committee can move forward with the next phase of researching and planning the specifics of what a single campus could look like, with the hope of presenting an amended regional agreement to voters in fall 2026.

“We’re not saying yes or no yet,” Superintendent Sheryl Stanton said on the possibility of a single campus. “We have a lot of questions between now and 18 months from now that need to get answered for us to be able to then, as a school committee, say, ‘Yes, this is exactly what I want.’”

The Hawlemont School Committee voted 4-1 on Monday to accept the recommendation and the Mohawk Trail School Committee voted 11-1 on Wednesday to accept the recommendation. The idea involves a two-phased approach that would be implemented over five to seven years.

If approved by voters in the member towns, Phase 1 would include merging the two districts, moving all sixth graders to Mohawk Trail Regional School, applying to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for funding to remodel the existing building or build a new school, and some consolidation of elementary schools, with specifics to be determined later.

Phase 2 would consist of moving all elementary school students to a newly constructed or renovated single campus. According to the report produced by Pittsfield-based Berkshire Educational Resources K-12 (BERK12) that explored reorganization options for the districts, renovating Mohawk Trail Regional School could cost anywhere from $51.5 million to $110.3 million, and constructing a new school could cost between $100 million and $145 million. The MSBA could pay for as much as 80% of the project.

Throughout their discussion on the proposal, members of the two school committees repeatedly said that voting to accept the recommendation for a single campus does not mean the decision is set in stone. Their approval means the steering committee can dive deeper into its research, focusing specifically on the single-campus model. Further research will ascertain if construction costs are feasible, what changes will need to be made to the regional agreement, and what additional questions or concerns need to be addressed for voters to support the proposal.

“We’re not locking ourselves into an all-or-nothing approach,” said Budge Litchfield, who represents Heath on the Mohawk Trail School Committee. “We need something, and if it’s not pretty damn clear that there’s gonna be eight yes votes [from the member towns], then we have lost an awful lot of time, effort and money spent on this study.”

In addition to accepting the recommendation, the two school committees voted to authorize the steering committee to continue managing the project. Mohawk Trail School Committee Chair Martha Thurber said the steering committee will issue another request for proposals (RFP) seeking a consultant to continue more in-depth analysis of what construction will cost, the impact on residents’ property taxes, educational models, etc. The steering committee cannot rehire current consultant BERK12 without seeking other bids as well, but as BERK12 was the only company that issued a bid for the first study, the committee expects BERK12 would likely win the bid this time, too.

Thurber said additional community outreach will be conducted in this next phase, and the committee will seek answers to questions that were raised by residents during town hall meetings over the winter, where the steering committee presented the details of BERK12’s report. She said the steering committee has worked to review the potential impacts of the decision, and will continue to do so with the school boards’ support.

“Change is hard. Our schools are small and expensive. Most of them have deteriorating physical structures, outdated electrical systems and insufficient technological infrastructure. All of this affects student learning and needs to be addressed, whether we combine and reorganize or not,” the steering committee wrote in its recommendation. “This plan is designed to better position our schools with more resources and broader social advantages, to give our children the education, support and choices they need and deserve.”

The full recommendation of the steering committee can be read at 2districts8towns.org.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.