Rochester’s Select Board Monday hosted a presentation of the plans for a new Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School building and predictably focused on how much the project will cost the town.
The Old Colony School Building Committee, along with its consultants, have completed the schematic design phase for the preferred solutions to the current building’s deficiencies as identified during a Feasibility Study for the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which will approve and help fund the project. In the Council on Aging Senior Center meeting room, aided by a slide-show presentation, project consultants Walter Hartley and Bob Williams on Monday took attendees through the entire study process.
The School Building Committee is now advancing into the funding phase of the project after evaluating the options to address deficiencies that include smaller spaces than modern vocational shops need, failing and leaking windows, lack of handicap accessibility, outdated electrical, HVAC, and plumbing systems, and the absence of a fire-protection system. Fifty-two options for addressing Old Colony’s facility needs were narrowed down to seven and eventually to the need for a new building on the 80-acre North Avenue property where the current 50-year-old facility sits.
To answer current vocational industry needs, Hartley and Williams said, the new, sprawling two-story building would add Plumbing, HVAC, and Dental Assistant programs, more space for its other programs and even a larger gym, kitchen, cafeteria, and an outdoor courtyard. To reduce energy costs, solar panels and windows allowing natural light into classrooms will be installed. Additional water resources for fire protection would come from a connection to the Middleboro water system.
The presentation revealed the current estimated project cost is $288,743,683. The MSBA reimbursement for the project is projected to be $129,675,235. The share from district members (Acushnet, Carver, Lakeville, Mattapoisett, and Rochester) of the project costs would be approximately $159,068,448. The Estimated Impact for the Average Single Family home quarterly would be $161.72.
Both Select Board members and attendees worried aloud about those costs. On November 18, an election across all member towns will vote on approving the new building project. The Select Board asked whether a debt-exclusion vote would be on the same election warrant. Town Administrator Cameron Durant said a debt-exclusion vote would need to be a separate warrant. The ballot question on November 18 will be for approving the project. Each town will then have to decide how to fund the expense.
Kristen Nash, Rochester resident and a retired school superintendent, asked about the project’s financial impact on the town in other ways. She said town residents need more information on what the full impact will be on them before they vote on November 18. Since towns pay Old Colony an assessment based on the number of students, will more students, attracted to a new facility, make the town’s assessments go up? She asked with Select Board member Brad Morse adding a related question: Will a new building’s operational costs alone make the town assessment go up?
Old Colony Superintendent-Director Aaron Polansky answered that the student-enrollment levels will fluctuate year to year. It’s an unpredictable factor. Chair Adam Murphy said Polansky and the consultants need to provide more data; a more detailed overview of the assessment increases will be seen. “Give us a spreadsheet,” he said.
Polansky promised to get these answers. Hartley and Williams noted they will continue giving presentations and meeting with communities across the district until the district-wide ballot vote on November 18 (polls will be open from 12:00 pm noon to 8:00 pm).
For more information available online, they directed people to oldcolonybuildingproject.com/documents.
The long-range project timeline sets construction to begin sometime between March of 2027 and August 2029. The current building would be demolished sometime between July and December of 2029.
In other action, the Select Board approved the Board of Assessors’ recommendation to set a single, rather than a split property tax rate for FY2026 at $10.59 per thousand dollars of value. Assessor Karen Trudeau noted roughly 83% of the town is zoned as Residential and only 13.6% of Rochester is zoned Commercial, Industrial or Personal Property. “Much of that is small businesses and ‘Chapter’ land,” she said. “Therefore, historically a split rate has not been implemented.”
The board granted Town Clerk Marjorie Barrows’s request to appoint a permanent assistant town clerk. The board moved that she may use a $4,500 stipend amount currently in the Select Board administrator’s account to increase the hours of current administrative assistant and the town clerk’s part-time helper, Emily Dumas-Harding.
The board approved a Rochester Police Department Mutual Aid Agreement that will allow town officers to train in other local communities.
The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Monday, October 6 at 6:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco