MRSD Regional Agreement Updates
May 16, 2022, Update: The voters at Harwich Town Meeting and Chatham Town Meeting have approved the proposed changes to the Monomoy Regional Agreement. The final Agreement will now be signed by town and school officials and forwarded to the Massachusetts Department of Education, at which point it will be in effect immediately.
MRSD Regional Agreement
Why does the Monomoy Regional Agreement need to be changed?
There currently exists an unintended fiscal inequity in how the language in the Regional Agreement handles assessment, where the Town of Harwich ends up subsidizing operational costs of a much smaller Chatham Elementary School. A new approach to assessing costs is recommended, which would find each town paying for its own elementary school; thereby mitigating the unintended elementary fiscal inequity. Ina ddition, there are some changes required by DESE to align the agreement's language with state law.
Amendment Process:
- A complete copy of the latest approved agreement and any proposed amendment must be submitted to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for review prior to receiving local approval
- Final approval by the Commissioner will be subject to legal approval and receipt of all authorized local votes
- A new or amended agreement must be approved by DESE and member communities prior to December 31 of any given year in order for the agreement to be in effect on July 1 of the following fiscal year
To read the original MRSD Regional Agreement, click here.
Proposed Changes to Monomoy Regional Agreement
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