Barnstable School Committee Wants Town to Take Over Cotuit School Building

BARNSTABLE – The future of the former Cotuit Elementary School remains uncertain and the Barnstable School Committee is seeking to return the property back to the town.

An informal discussion took place earlier this month about what to do with the property after a lease was not renewed with the Waldorf School of Cape Cod.

The Waldorf School lease was not renewed because it had fallen behind on rent payments.

An evaluation by the school department also determined that the property requires about $1.3 million in capital improvements over the next few years.

School Committee Chairman Christopher Joyce recommended transferring the building to the town and said it is more equipped to manage the facility.

“Our goal was to not leave that building empty,” Joyce said.

“When the costs started to come in, it is not fiscally responsible for us to make that decision to spend those dollars on fixing that building to create a lease.”

Before the infrastructure evaluation was completed, The Cape Cod Collaborative expressed interest in leasing the facility. The organization provides special education and alternative programming.

The Collaborative leases a former school building in Osterville and the Henry T. Wing School in Sandwich. It has submitted an offer to Sandwich to extend its lease.

President of the Cotuit-Santuit Civic Association Jim Dannhauser said residents in the village do not understand how the current situation came to be.

“Four or five months ago we had a tenant. It had some difficulties but it was curing its arrearages and was interested in remaining in occupancy,” Dannhauser said.

“And now it is gone. And that means we have a vacant building on what’s a very important property in the middle of the village, up gradient from a significant water supply.”

School Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Ellis said the previous tenants were not paying the rent and payments were backlogged several months.

“We have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers in the town of Barnstable as elected members of the school committee,” Ellis said. “We really felt as if we were given no choice but to be responsible to our taxpayers not to renew that lease.”

Ellis said it had nothing to do with getting a different leasee in the building.

“It had everything to do with our responsibility to the taxpayers,” she said.

A vote by the school committee is not expected until November 20.