Hoosac Valley Seeks to Prevent 'Volatile' Assessments

ADAMS, Mass.— The "volatile" shifts in Hoosac Valley Regional School District's town assessments year to year is hard for smaller towns to absorb; however, a proposed change to the regional agreement would fix that. 

 

During the Select Board meeting last week, Superintendent Aaron Dean presented the proposed change to the regional agreement that would set assessments based on a five-year rolling average rather than the annual student enrollment.

 

"The long-term goal is to make the assessment process a little bit more viable for people from year-to-year," he said. 

 

An ad hoc committee was convened to review the district's agreement, during which concerns arose about the rapid fluctuations in assessments.

 

"I think you have to look short term, and you have to look long term. The goal is to kind of level it off and make planning easier and flatten that curve in terms of how it's going to impact both communities," Dean said. 

 

Every year, it is a little more difficult for one community because they are feeling disproportionately impacted compared to the other, he said. 

 

"The transient nature of this population right now is like nothing I've ever seen," Dean said.