SHUTESBURY - Depending upon who is talking, a new provision in state law that lets towns pull out of superintendency unions with a majority vote of their school board was ill-advised, or just what the doctor ordered to give towns more control of their fate.

Shutesbury School Committee Chair Michael DeChiara wrote and provided draft language that proved the basis for the final measure that was included in an education reform bill passed in January.

While some local officials say the provision should have been better vetted before its approval, others praise DeChiara for getting a measure passed and on the books that gives greater power to small towns.

"What you have here is a specific town committee using its political acumen to change in the law and obtain a greater hand at the bargaining table with other towns in their union," said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. "What I believe he wanted was to give Shutesbury a more powerful voice when all the union's school committees get together."

State Reps. Christopher Donelan, D-Orange, and Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, filed the amendment to the state education reform bill that allows a town to leave a school union with a majority vote of its own school committee. Previously, there was a mechanism by which a superintendency union could dissolve, but no way for a single town to withdraw.

Recent interviews with school advocates in Boston and western Massachusetts indicate that the new law came as a surprise to many. They noted it had not been on the agenda for the overall education reform bill.

Koocher, speaking in a telephone interview from his Boston office last week praised DeChiara's deftness in getting the measure passed.

"He gets the gold medal for 2010 legislative slalom, because what he and Kulik pulled off was quite politically skillful," said Koocher. "This was a very interesting study in how law is made, how things get done in a hectic legislative process and how people skillfully use the legislative process to do what they want quickly."

Long-standing issue

The subject of a town's withdrawal from a superintendency union has long been a topic of discussion in Franklin and Hampshire counties. Two regional bodies dedicated to studying school regionalization, the Franklin County Public Education Study Group and the Amherst Regionalization Study Committee, have cited the lack of a process to withdraw as a problem.

Donelan said it was those conversations had provided the impetus for the legislation filed by Kulik and himself.

"At different times the issue would come up about not just Union 28, but other communities with superintendency unions," Donelan said. "It was unclear about how a town leaves a union. There was language on dissolving a union, but nothing on what a town needed to do if it wished to leave a union."

Donelan said he and Kulik decided the best course would be to add the measure onto another bill when it seemed appropriate. "This bill came along - it was the first education bill that had come along in a while- and we felt it was the appropriate time," he said.

It's no surprise that the new law has raised concern among the towns in Union 28, which are Leverett, Shutesbury, Erving, Wendell and New Salem. Two of the towns - Leverett and Shutesbury - have discussed pulling out of the district four times since 1960 so they could join forces with Amherst and Pelham. The two Union 28 towns currently send middle and high school students to the Amherst Regional School District and are members of the Amherst Regionalization Study Committee.

In addition, relations between Shutesbury and Union 28 hit a low this summer, after Union 28 Superintendent Joan Wickman awarded a principal a one-year contract, instead of a three-year deal. This decision sparked widespread anger on the part of town residents, with some expressing the thought that Shutesbury should leave the union over the issue.

Shutesbury officials have sought to downplay those events and quell the impression that their town is preparing to leave Union 28.

Shutesbury Town Administrator Becky Torres, said the town is not about to leave Union 28.

"Is this going to change our world? Not today," Torres said of the new law. Contract obligations and other financial contracts would, among other factors, prevent a hasty exit from the union, Torres noted.

"We are taking this moment to think about education and what we want as a community," said Kristen Luschen, a Shutesbury school board member. "Leaving Union 28 is one of many, many options - it is definitely not a foregone conclusion."

Concerns remain

Other local school officials are worried about the new law.

Amherst Regional School Committee Chairman Farshid Hajir, and a member of the Leverett School Committee, said with more public input, the new provision would have been better.

"This is a law that affects the entire state and, as far as I know, this is something that only one school committee member had input into," he said. "I am very frustrated that this was made into law without consulting a wide swath of school committee members. The process broke down; it was not a democratic process."

Luschen also said she wished legislators had consulted with others before filing the amendment.

"I think it would have been a good idea for the school committees to have a chance to respond to this amendment before it was made," she said.

DeChiara said he makes frequent requests of local legislators, most of which go unheeded.

"In my experience, I have shared a lot of ideas with legislators over the years, and you never know what is going to come out of the process," DeChiara said.

The new law will allow Shutesbury to study its governance and give the town a chance to pursue its best option, DeChiara said. He noted that the School Committee has voted to form a committee to study alternatives, though no option is predetermined.

"I have been asked repeatedly by people in Shutesbury, who have kids in Shutesbury, who pay taxes in Shutesbury and who elected me to the School Committee, to give them options," he said. "I followed up on that."

Parent Rob Hayes, of Shutesbury, said he welcomes the chance for his town to rethink the system.

"Now that this is on the books, we will now have the leverage to make the changes we want to happen," he said.