2026-10-06 Election Results

Shall the Town accept the provisions of sections sixteen to sixteen I, inclusive, of chapter seventy-one of the General Laws, providing for the establishment of a regional school district, to consist of the towns of Bernardston, Gill, Leyden, Montague, Northfield and Warwick, and to be known as the Great River Regional School District (the “New District”)? The New District would be formed and governed in accordance with an agreement filed by the Six Town Regional Planning Board with the Select Board – either the six-town agreement (the “Six-Town Regional Agreement”) or the five-town agreement (the “Five-Town Regional Agreement”), depending on the results of this vote as described below (copies of both of which are available for inspection at Town Hall and on the website 6towns.org).

If a majority of the voters present and voting in each of the towns of Bernardston, Gill, Leyden, Northfield, Warwick and Montague, vote in the affirmative, the New District shall be established to include all six towns, and the Six- Town Regional Agreement shall thereupon become effective and govern the New District, subject to approval of the Regional Agreement by the commissioner of elementary and secondary education; provided, however, that if a majority of the voters of the Town of Warwick present and voting on this question does not vote in the affirmative, the New District shall instead be established to include only the towns of Bernardston, Gill, Leyden, Northfield and Montague, shall not include the Town of Warwick, and the Five-Town Regional Agreement shall thereupon become effective and govern the New District, subject to approval of the Regional Agreement by the commissioner of elementary and secondary education.

Full operation of the New District, and dissolution of the Gill-Montague Regional School District (the “GMRSD”) and the Pioneer Valley Regional School District (the “PVRSD”), shall be further subject to enactment of special legislation permitting (a) the transfer of the buildings and other assets and liabilities of each of the GMRSD and the PVRSD to the New District on the date the New District becomes fully operational (at the end of the transition period specified in the Regional Agreement); and (b) the dissolution of the GMRSD and the PVRSD on that same date without further action by any public body.

Do you approve of the vote of the Regional District School Committee of the Franklin County Regional Vocational Technical School District adopted on June 10, 2026, authorizing the District to borrow a sum not to exceed $236,572,983 to pay the costs of designing, constructing, equipping, and furnishing a new Franklin County Technical School, which vote provides, in relevant part, as follows:

“VOTED: That the Franklin County Regional Vocational Technical School District hereby appropriates the amount of $236,572,983 for the purpose of paying costs of designing, constructing, equipping, and furnishing a new Franklin County Regional Vocational Technical School and related facilities, located at 82 Industrial Boulevard in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto (the “Project”), which school facility shall have an anticipated useful life as an educational facility for the instruction of school children of at least 50 years, and for which the District may be eligible for a school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), said amount to be expended at the direction of the School Building Committee. To meet this appropriation, the District is authorized to borrow said amount, under and pursuant to Chapter 71, Section 16(n), of the General Laws and the District Agreement, as amended, or pursuant to any other enabling authority. The District acknowledges that the MSBA’s grant program is a non-entitlement, discretionary program based on need as determined by the MSBA, and any Project costs the District incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the District; provided further that any grant that the District may receive from the MSBA shall not exceed the lesser of (1) sixty-six and twenty-seven hundredths percent (66.27%) of eligible, approved Project costs, as determined by the MSBA, or (2) the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA, and that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the Project Funding Agreement that may be executed between the District and the MSBA.”