School Committee Hears Tuition Task Force Presentation, No Decision Reached

NORTH BROOKFIELD — October 20, 2025 — North Brookfield School Committee heard a tuition task force presentation Monday exploring whether to close the junior-senior high school and send grades 7 through 12 to a neighboring district. Committee Chair Tim Canada, who also led the nine-member task force, outlined an estimated $2.8 million in potential annual building and staff cost savings if the school were closed, offset by an unknown per-pupil tuition cost not yet proposed by either QuaBog Regional or Quabin Regional school districts — the two receiving-district candidates — and a projected maximum one-time unemployment liability of $1.2 million. Canada was careful to say the task force made no final recommendation and that no decision has been made, though the district would need a signed agreement with DESE by end of April 2026 to implement any change for the following school year. Teachers union president Damian, a 27-year employee and task force member, used public comment to allege a conflict of interest in Canada chairing both the School Committee and the task force, and said he was never given access to Zoom for summer meetings he could not attend in person; Canada said many of those characterizations were inaccurate. Current district enrollment in grades 7 through 12 stands at just 119 students, while 142 students in those grades are already schooling out.