Town Government
How Monroe Schools Its Children
A Town That Sends Its Students Out
Monroe is too small to run a school, so it does something most towns never have to: it pays its neighbors to teach its children. Younger students attend Abbott Memorial School in the town of Florida from pre-kindergarten through grade 8, and high schoolers attend Drury High School in North Adams for grades 9 to 12. Students also have the option of C.H. McCann Technical School in North Adams. Monroe pays tuition to those districts, and that tuition is one of the largest lines in the town budget. In 2025 the town’s school spending was $314,506, the single biggest article Town Meeting voted that year.
Where the Decision Sits
Because Monroe operates no schools, its residents do not elect the school committees that run Florida’s or North Adams’s schools; those committees answer to the voters of their own districts. What Monroe voters do control is the money. Every year the school tuition comes before Monroe’s own Town Meeting as part of the warrant, and every registered voter in the room gets a vote on it. That makes the school budget one of the clearest examples in town of direct democracy: the amount Monroe spends to educate its children is set, article by article, by the people who show up.
The Receiving District
Monroe’s high schoolers are counted in the North Adams Public Schools, which enrolls about 1,064 students and is led by its superintendent. The figures on Monroe’s student-data page describe that North Adams district, because it is the one whose classrooms Monroe’s older students sit in. It is worth being clear about the line: North Adams teaches Monroe’s high schoolers, but its school committee is elected by North Adams voters, not by Monroe’s.
| Receiving district (grades 9 to 12) | North Adams Public Schools |
|---|---|
| Superintendent | Timothy Callahan (North Adams) |
| Enrollment | About 1,064 students |
| State data | DESE profile, North Adams (code 02090000) |
How a Monroe Student Can Take Part
- Follow the money at Town Meeting. The school tuition is voted here, so a resident who cares about the schools has a direct say on the budget.
- Speak at the receiving district. North Adams school committee meetings are public, so a Monroe family that attends Drury can attend and address the committee.
- Take on a civics project. A student can study how a non-operating town decides where its children go to school, which is a real question Monroe answers every year.
Curious how a bill becomes law, or how students can take on a civics project?