BOSTON — Bills proposing $60 million for rural schools are necessary to ensure their continued survival, several western Massachusetts residents testified to state legislators on Wednesday.

State Sen. Jo Comerford and state Rep. Natalie Blais invited students, superintendents, town administrators and school committee members from across the region to speak about the challenges their school districts face, and how House Bill 517 and Senate Bill 314, “An Act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools,” could offer much-needed support.

“What we know is that rural schools face very unique fiscal challenges,” Blais said. “Our communities are reliant upon a residential tax base. We don’t have industry, we don’t have commercial. And so our communities feel this very deeply.

“While they want to support our local schools, they’re having to make really difficult choices between funding schools or buying a fire truck,” Blais continued. “When you don’t have that money, you have to make difficult decisions. You’ve got your finance committees against your school committees and while everyone wants what’s best for your students, it really becomes a difficult choice.”

If passed, the bills would create funding opportunities, offer technical assistance and support for transportation and special education for both rural schools, defined as districts with student densities of less than 35 students per square mile, and all districts across the commonwealth, explained Comerford.

The bills would create a Rural School Fund to support rural schools districts, which Blais said there are 67 of in the state. An additional Declining Enrollment Fund would be created to support districts that have seen declining enrollment in recent years, which have led to stagnant state aid while operational expenses have soared. The bills will support regionalization, planning for school closures and renovations.

Comerford said the bills will also require equitable representation for western Massachusetts on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“Right now on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education there is not one representative from Hampshire, Franklin, or Berkshire counties,” Comerford said. “We believe that it’s imperative that this state board that makes decisions about our schools in rural areas and schools with declining enrollment have representation that is adequate so that when people are voting they understand what makes a rural school. ... We want fairness and we want representation.”

After introducing the bills, Comerford and Blais passed the microphone to a panel of representatives from rural school districts to explain to other state legislators in attendance why they are necessary.

Charlemont Town Administrator Sarah Reynolds said the town has 56 miles of roads and 30 bridges that require constant maintenance costing millions of dollars, but with the school budgets being so high, the town is unable to fund more than the bare necessities, such as plowing and salting. Reynolds must apply for grants for the town to be able to complete any repair or improvement projects along its roads and bridges.

“Charlemont has a town budget of $4.6 million, and 56% of that is for the schools,” Reynolds said. “We’re at the point where our budgets can’t sustain them.”

Reynolds said the town and school districts have pursued different fiscal sustainability options in the past, including applying for grants, consolidating and closing schools, deferring expensive purchases and maintenance, but are still at a point where they cannot continue funding the schools. With a population of 1,185, a third of which are seniors on fixed incomes, the town’s residents cannot afford to increase the budget.

“They’ve been Band-Aids along the road because the money is not there,” Reynolds said. “We’re at a point where we have to think really creatively to get anything that comes naturally to other communities.”

Panelists said limited funding and declining enrollment has led to students having less opportunities than their counterparts in the eastern part of the state: less AP and elective classes, less internship or job opportunities, fewer athletic teams and longer bus commutes, and physical spaces that are not always conducive to learning.

“The lights are not working most of the time. In the cafeteria we were eating in the dark for a while because we couldn’t find the funding to fix it,” Mystic Glenn, a student at Pioneer Valley Regional School said. “These are just some of the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis.”

Martha Thurber, chair of the Mohawk Trail Regional School Committee, said that many of the Mohawk Trail towns and surrounding school districts are already against their levy limit.

“This is a fight that is ongoing and is critical. We’re at a point where our towns can no longer provide funding the way they have been,” Thurber said. “This is urgent. This is not something we can wait another 15 years for.”

Both bills can be read in their entirety at malegislature.gov.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com