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North Middlesex committee gets one-year pause from MSBA on Ashby Elementary decision after community protests
Summary
Public commenters at the April 10 North Middlesex Regional School Committee meeting urged the committee to keep Ashby Elementary open. Superintendent Brad Morgan said the Massachusetts School Building Authority authorized the district to wait one year before making any permanent closure decision.
The North Middlesex Regional School Committee on April 10 said the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) has authorized the district to wait one year before making any permanent decision about Ashby Elementary School, a change that came as several Ashby residents urged the committee to reverse or reconsider plans to take the building offline for FY 2026.
The pause was announced by Superintendent Brad Morgan during his report. Morgan said the district has been “advocating for a 1 year delay in making any permanent decisions” and credited Secretary and Acting Commissioner of Education Patrick Tutweiler for intervening with MSBA so North Middlesex could “wait 1 full year before making any final decisions around Ashby.”
Why it matters: Ashby residents said taking their town’s only elementary school offline has wide effects beyond classroom instruction — on property values, travel time for kindergarteners and community cohesion. Several speakers at the meeting said the combination of a planned consolidation and other proposed budget changes risked pushing families out of town.
Public comment highlights Chelsea Carr of Ashby, who identified herself as a resident, said the consolidation and proposed fee changes would disproportionately harm Ashby families and questioned district priorities. “So pretty much from my point of view, what you’re saying is screw these kids, screw their education,” Carr told the committee.
Carrie Mahoney Battersby, also of Ashby, addressed the potential elimination or reduction of middle school athletics and new administrative positions on the agenda. Noting a roughly $2,000,000 district deficit cited earlier in the meeting, she said adding administrative roles while cutting programs and asking parents to pay tuition for full-day kindergarten would create “terrible optics.”
Stacy Ochinger of Ashby and other commenters rewatched past meetings and urged the committee to consider alternatives such as temporarily pausing a different school instead of Ashby, arguing that keeping Ashby open for a year could preserve equitable busing and help rural residents.
District response and next steps Morgan said the district will proceed with consolidation planning for FY 2026 that will take Ashby Elementary offline for the year, but that the pause authorized by MSBA allows the committee time to consider permanent outcomes and explore alternatives. He said a district team is working through logistics for a potential move and that D-B-U-S (transportation) is examining bus routes for the coming school year.
Committee members and the superintendent reiterated calls for continued advocacy at the state level. Committee member Lisa Martin (referred to in the meeting as Miss Martin) and others who testified at the state House Ways and Means hearing were thanked for their work; Morgan encouraged continued constituent outreach to legislators.
No formal reversal: The committee did not reverse prior votes about temporarily taking Ashby offline; rather the MSBA authorization buys a year to avoid making a permanent closure decision immediately.
Ending: With the MSBA delay in place, the committee and district staff said they will use the coming year to explore logistics, costs and alternatives and encouraged continued public engagement and legislative advocacy.
