Pioneer Valley residents, legislators speak to ‘urgent’ need for more rural school funding

State Sen. Jo Comerford, at right, and state Rep. Natalie Blais, at left, welcomed representatives from school districts across western Massachusetts on Wednesday to speak to legislators on the unique challenges rural communities face in funding education.

State Sen. Jo Comerford, at right, and state Rep. Natalie Blais, at left, welcomed representatives from school districts across western Massachusetts on Wednesday to speak to legislators on the unique challenges rural communities face in funding education. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/JO COMERFORD’S OFFICE

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

Staff Writer

Published: 06-25-2025 5:44 PM

BOSTON — Bills proposing $60 million for rural schools are necessary to ensure their continued survival, Pioneer Valley residents told state legislators on Wednesday.

State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, invited students, superintendents, town administrators and school committee members from across western Massachusetts to speak on the challenges their rural school districts face, and how bills H.517 and S.314, “An act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools,” could offer much-needed support.

“What we know is that rural schools face very unique fiscal challenges,” Blais said. “Our communities are reliant upon a residential tax base. We don’t have industry, we don’t have commercial. And so our communities feel this very deeply.

“While they want to support our local schools, they’re having to make really difficult choices between funding schools or buying a fire truck,” Blais continued. “When you don’t have that money, you have to make difficult decisions. You’ve got your finance committees against your school committees, and while everyone wants what’s best for your students, it really becomes a difficult choice.”

If passed, the bills would create funding opportunities and offer technical assistance and support for transportation and special education for not only rural schools (defined as districts with student densities of less than 35 students per square mile), but all districts across the state, according to Comerford.

The bills would create a Rural School Fund to support rural districts, with Blais noting there are 67 in the state. An additional Declining Enrollment Fund would be created to support districts that have seen declining enrollment in recent years. The bills will support regionalization, as well as planning for school closures and renovations.

Comerford said the legislation would also require equitable representation for western Massachusetts on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“Right now on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education there is not one representative from Hampshire, Franklin or Berkshire counties,” Comerford said. “We believe that it’s imperative that this state board that makes decisions about our schools in rural areas and schools with declining enrollment have representation that is adequate. … We want fairness and we want representation.”

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After introducing the bills, Comerford and Blais passed the microphone to a panel of representatives from rural school districts.

Charlemont Town Administrator Sarah Reynolds said her town has 56 miles of roads and 30 bridges that require constant, expensive maintenance, but with the school budgets being so high, the town is unable to fund more than the bare necessities, such as plowing and salting. Reynolds must apply for grants for the town to be able to complete any repairs or improvement projects along its roads and bridges.

“Charlemont has a town budget of $4.6 million, and 56% of that is for the schools,” Reynolds said. “We’re at the point where our budgets can’t sustain them.”

Reynolds said the town and school districts have pursued different fiscal sustainability options in the past, including applying for grants, consolidating and closing schools, and deferring expensive purchases and maintenance, but the town still struggles to fund the schools. With a population of 1,185 residents, one-third of whom are seniors living on fixed incomes, Charlemont cannot afford to increase the budget, she said.

“They’ve been Band-Aids along the road because the money is not there,” Reynolds said. “We’re at a point where we have to think really creatively to get anything that comes naturally to other communities.”

Panelists said limited funding and declining enrollment have led to students having fewer opportunities than their counterparts in the eastern part of Massachusetts: fewer Advanced Placement and elective classes, fewer internship and job opportunities, fewer athletic teams and longer bus commutes, and physical spaces that are not always conducive to learning.

“In the cafeteria we were eating in the dark for a while because we couldn’t find the funding to fix it,” said Mystic Glenn, a student at Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield. “These are just some of the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis.”

Martha Thurber, chair of the Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee, said many of the Mohawk Trail towns and surrounding school districts are already up against their tax levy limit.

“This is a fight that is ongoing and is critical. We’re at a point where our towns can no longer provide funding the way they have been,” Thurber said. “This is urgent. This is not something we can wait another 15 years for.”

Both bills can be read in their entirety at malegislature.gov.

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