AMHERST — Amherst Regional Middle School’s swimming pool is regularly used for aquatics programming by Amherst Recreation, a town department that also has its administrative offices in the building.

Yet for many aspects of the relationship between the regional school district and the town of Amherst, including the maintenance and upkeep of playing fields and use of auditoriums for municipal events, formal agreements and pricing structures have never been in place.

Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman is seeking to change that, requesting that the Regional School Committee, which has representatives from the four district towns, empower her to begin drawing up memorandums of understandings. These could also be in place in advance of sixth graders from Amherst elementary schools moving to the middle school for the school year beginning in fall 2026.

“We would like to start formalizing a lot of our practices in terms of how the regional school buildings are used, what is it we’re sharing versus not sharing,” Herman told the committee at an October meeting.

Herman said she has begun working with town Finance Director Melissa Zawadzki on drawing up agreements, which would also cover things like the maintenance done by the Amherst Department of Public Works on playing fields and parking lots. These would include a use-of-facility process for the school buildings and setting costs for renting the facilities.

“It’s time to try to formalize a lot of the gentlemanly agreements that were a shake of the hand before,” Herman said.

This comes as Herman has pitched the idea of moving the seventh and eighth graders from the middle school to the high school next fall due to a shrinking enrollment and budget shortfalls. The building originally opened as a junior high school with ninth graders, as well, though ninth graders in the mid-1990s moved to a renovated and expanded high school. The middle school this week was accepted by the Massachusetts School Building Authority into the accelerated repair program for a partial roof repair.

School Committee members appeared supportive of drawing up formal agreements but put off a vote until a legal opinion is received.

Amherst representative Bridget Hynes said her concern is about allowing use of the middle school when there is uncertainty around the future of the building as an academic site.

Shutesbury representative Anna Heard said it makes sense to begin negotiations between the entities, but that there should be approval of the arrangements by committee members.

With stress on the regional budgets, Pelham representative William Sherr said having agreements is sensible. “I would be in favor of trying to come to agreements and it would be in our interest due to the budgets,” Sherr said.

The topic also came up at last week’s Town Council meeting, where At Large Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke said intermunicipal agreements would be reviewed by the Town Council.

Hanneke said she has been advocating for formalizing agreements with the regional schools for a long time. “I’m thrilled to see it,” Hanneke said.

Town Manager Paul Bockelman explained that some of the relationships between the town and schools came when there was a shared facilities director who managed both as one entity.

Bockelman said he agrees with Herman that deals should be done in writing, so the schools and towns understand who is responsible for taking care of things, like the swimming pool and the football field.

While quantifying costs, though, Bockelman said if there are potholes in the parking lots at the regional schools, public works crews will fix those without seeking compensation.

“We work together, but sort of reducing things to writing will help clarify and identify who’s sharing the burden on these things,” Bockelman said.