The revised Regional District Agreement (RDA) between the towns of Otis and Sandisfield regarding their joint operation of the Farmington River Regional School District (FRRSD) may have moved a step closer to acceptance last month when the FRRSD Union (consisting of teachers, administrators, and other employees of the district) officially endorsed the School Committee's proposed revision of the agreement.

This follows the unanimous vote in September of the seven-member School Committee to approve the same proposal. (See the Union's letter to the Committee, below.)

The next step in the approval process is for the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to issue a preliminary approval of the plan. DESE's decision is expected AS THIS ISSUE OF THE TIMES IS GOING TO PRESS.

Should that happen, Otis and Sandisfield residents will schedule individual special town meetings to vote on the proposal.

Acceptance of the revision by both towns will avoid a withdrawal of Sandisfield from the two-town school district.

But both towns may not agree on the revision.

Why is Sandisfield in effect threatening to leave town?

Because Sandisfield, the less wealthy of the two towns and with about 40 percent of the number of students, has been shouldering more than what they can afford to pay for the school, while Otis taxpayers, on the other hand, have been shouldering less than they can afford. This is according to metrics published by DESE, as reported in The Berkshire Eagle.

After laboring over proposed solutions for the last two years, the combined School Committee four members from Otis and three from Sandisfield voted unanimously in September to create a more equitable formula. The amended RDA is a good-faith attempt to address the discrepancy in taxpayer costs.

The Berkshire Eagle reported that the new apportionment method, if approved by state education officials and voters at town meetings, will shift the funding burden from Sandisfield toward Otis for transportation, capital and all other costs. The latter is known as adjusted operating costs.

The Eagle reported that with a total budget of slightly more than $5 million for this fiscal year, the new apportionment would represent a shift of $324,137 from Sandisfield to Otis.

This puts Otis voters in the awkward position of voting to increase their share of the FRRSD costs.

If, however, Otis votes not to accept the compromise, Sandisfield will very likely follow through on its efforts to withdraw from the district, in effect dissolving the regional school district.

A decision by Sandisfield to withdraw would cause a much greater cost increase to Otis should Otis choose to continue operation of the elementary school as a municipal school district. In this case, Sandisfield would tuition-out its elementary pupils to other districts under a tuition agreement, in much the same way that FRRSD handles its middle- and high-school pupils today. This would lower Sandisfield's education costs significantly.