The town of Richmond asked us to share some great news about their school system and resources for future homeowners in the town. First, they unanimously agreed to remove any uncertainty about the future of the Richmond Consolidated School: “Motion to end discussion of all alternative options for the school other than maintaining the status quo.”
They state, “First, the previously noted decline in resident student enrollment that led the committee to consider recommending changes in the school structure is no longer a factor. In fact, Richmond resident enrollment reached a nadir of 62 students three years ago, and has increased every year since then. For FY 2018, there will be 86 resident students enrolled, outnumbering choice students. Even more encouraging, in preschool and kindergarten, there are 15 and 16 resident students respectively. This increase is primarily due to an influx of young families to town, with sales of homes under $300,000 doubling from 10 in 2015 to 20 in 2016. The birth rate in Richmond also doubled last year from four to five per year over the past decade to eight in 2016.”
“In addition to rising resident enrollment, the Richmond Consolidated School is a state-designated Tier 1 school that is considered one of the finest schools not only in Berkshire County, but in all of Massachusetts, with top standardized test scores and widely acclaimed academic and arts programs. Because of these factors, there is no reason to consider any option to close the school or eliminate the middle school, and further discussion of these options would be counterproductive in that it might discourage young families from moving to Richmond. Therefore we move to eliminate these options from any further consideration. The resident enrollment situation at the school will continue to be monitored by the committee.“
“Second, we seek to provide potential home owners with questions about the school system to have direct access to the thoughts and experiences of their peers. To achieve this, we list below current home owners with school age or pre-school age children who have volunteered to take phone calls and inquiries to aid these potential home owners.”
Pete and Nicole Antil
269 Cone Hill Road
540 250 1244
nantil@nicoleantil.com
Emily and Phil Cohen
748 East Road
508 265 0293
ecohen@bregmanpartners.com
Melissa and Sean McLaughlin
2460 State Road
818 326 1580
seanjmclaughlin@me.com
Julie and Ryan Sabourin
190 Orchard Circle
sabourin.julia@gmail.com
Penny and Rick Saupe
60 Deer Hill Road
413 698 3502
psaupe@nycap.rr.com
And in case you missed it, here is their wonderful video promoting the town’s attributes: