The Rochester Select Board’s biggest move Monday was to invite Old Rochester Regional School District Superintendent Michael Nelson to its January 20 meeting to learn more about ORR High School’s plan to accept Acushnet students in the 2026-27 academic year.
Member Brad Morse began the discussion by noting he has seen too many social-media posts proclaiming what that deal between ORR and the Acushnet School Department will mean. He is especially bothered by talk of how much Acushnet will pay to send its high school students to ORR. In some media, it’s a number far less than it’ll cost ORR to accept those students, Morse noted. “My recommendation is to invite the superintendent in for our January 20 meeting,” he said.
“We need to have a discussion in a public forum,” Chair Adam Murphy said as he agreed to extend the invitation. “We want questions answered.”
Town Administrator Cameron Durant noted negotiations between Acushnet and ORR aren’t even happening yet. The December 9 meeting of the Acushnet School Committee agreed simply to start negotiations with both the City of New Bedford and ORR to form a new school-district partnership that would send Acushnet students to that community’s high school. As only a point to start the negotiations, Acushnet had proposed paying 70% of what the state reimburses a community for its per pupil costs and had calculated that figure as $8,200 per student, Durant said. “That’s just their starting point,” he explained.
Murphy added that he is encouraged by the fact ORR has never said “that is the number” that will work for them. Rather, ORR has said “it’s in the ballpark” of what would work for them.
ORR officials visited the Acushnet School Committee in August to give a presentation on why ORR should become the town’s new partner for high school students. In early November, Acushnet school officials toured ORRHS. On November 20th, the ORR School Committee authorized Nelson to negotiate a tuition-based contract should Acushnet choose ORR for its new high school partner in anticipation of Acushnet’s December 9 vote. Acushnet estimates having 120 high-school-age students in 2025-26, Nelson noted at the time, though approximately half of them attend Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School in Rochester.
In other important business, Durant announced he is working on negotiating an inter-municipal agreement with Acushnet to share a Board of Health agent. He noted Acushnet has a similar inter-municipal pact with Mattapoisett to share a town planner.
Durant announced that a photo contest to determine the cover photo for Rochester’s 2025 annual report has begun. Interested parties can visit the town website to submit their entry at townofrochestermass.com.
The board announced Eversource is scheduling vegetation maintenance work at 0 High Street and 0 County Road for some time between the winter and spring of 2026.
The board approved extending the contract to share the Lakeville Animal Shelter.
The board accepted Anne Fernandes’ letter of resignation from the Rochester Memorial School Committee.
The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Monday, December 29, at 6:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco