Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich
CHATHAM – Chatham Selectmen heard from Cape Cod Regional Technical School Superintendent Robert Sanborn on plans for a new school at their meeting Tuesday.
The Massachusetts School Building Authority gave its final approval for the new school at their meeting last week, allowing plans to go into the schematic design phase.
Voters in the district will have the final say on the project with a vote on October 24.
The cost of the school’s $143 million construction will be shared by the 12 towns of the Tech’s district, but the Town of Mashpee is contemplating pulling out of the district, saying their share of the costs would be too high.
Mashpee could be paying $18 million over 30 years, compared to Chatham paying around $3.5 million for the same period.
That’s because the cost is based on how many students from each town attend the school.
Chatham has 10 students attending the school, representing only two percent of the school’s 618 students.
Barnstable, which has the most students at 173, is looking at paying 28 percent of the $98.7 million cost that will be shared by the 12 district towns.
The MSBA is expected to cover 30 percent of the project’s costs.
Sanborn said that Mashpee would need to have a home rule petition that would take them out of the district.
“I think the likelihood of a Home Rule Petition being successful, especially before the October 24 vote, is highly unlikely, and also I think for a multitude of reasons, unwise,” said Sanborn.
Sanborn points to the fact that Mashpee would have to get the legislature to have an affirmative vote and all 11 towns in the district would have to allow it.
If approved in October, the towns wouldn’t feel a financial impact until 2020.
Also, groundbreaking would start in the fall of 2019 with completion expected in the summer of 2021.
School officials plan to demolish the current school in the summer of 2022.
Sanborn said that the new school is critical for the community.
“We are building, if approved, an academic high school along with a technical school,” said Sanborn. “It’s not two schools in one but it’s darn close to two schools in one and those 15 technical spaces are expensive spaces that need to be outfitted properly for the 21st century.”
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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