Orleans Selectboard votes approval for high school building project capecodtimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from capecodtimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
ORLEANS A joint meeting addressed a range of issues Wednesday about the $131.8 million high school project in the lead-up to a districtwide vote March 30.
Two questions will go before voters: Will they support the Nauset Regional High School building project and the debt it will incur? And will they approve a debt override to pay for it?
If the school project passes and the debt question fails, Orleans will have a $1 million budget deficit, Town Administrator John Kelly said during the meeting between the Nauset Regional School Committee, Select Board and Finance Committee.
“Hopefully, voters understand that if they vote in favor of the project, they need to vote yes on both,” he said. “This is not like a Town Meeting vote that’s contingent on a debt exclusion question passing. The debt exclusion and school project must pass on their own merits.”
BREWSTER Members of the Finance Committee last week raised concerns over how costs associated with School Choice programming will drive up the overall cost of the proposed Nauset Regional High School project.
In a presentation to the Finance Committee earlier this month, committee member Robert Young voiced concerns not only with the $132 million capital cost of the project, $96 million of which would be absorbed by the four district towns, but also the estimated $4 million to $5 million cost of subsidizing School Choice at the high school.
Young presented data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, including total School Choice reimbursement figures, tuition costs paid by
27 January 2021
By: Ed Maroney
Several of these signs are out along Route 6A in Brewster, whose select board and finance committee were scheduled to host a summit meeting Monday night with members of the regional school committee, high school building committee, and Nauset administration.
ED MARONEY PHOTO
ORLEANS Confusing and conflicting information from both sides of the debate over the proposed renovation and expansion of Nauset Regional High School is roiling the waters in the four district towns.
What appeared to be a final word (“No”) on further funding extensions from the Massachusetts State Building Authority was actually much more nuanced. Claims that approving the project at town meetings would require a two-thirds margin turn out be wrong.
Wicked Local
BREWSTER The Nauset Regional School Committee is defending its plan to hold a district-wide vote March 30, seeking approval from voters in Brewster, Eastham, Orleans and Wellfleet for its $132 million plan to renovate and expand Nauset high school.
In a presentation before the Brewster Select Board Monday, school committee chairman Chris Easley said there are concerns that separate spring town meeting votes cannot be done in time to secure a $36.6 million grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
The grant offer is valid until May 31, and if spring town meetings are delayed due to the pandemic, the grant could be lost, the committee has said.