A rendering of a proposed new building for Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich.
HARWICH – Today marks the district-wide up or down vote on a new $127 million Cape Cod Regional Technical High School.
Residents in the district, which includes the towns of Barnstable, Mashpee, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown will head to the polls following months of debate on the topic.
Superintendent Robert Sanborn and other school officials have been crisscrossing the Cape hosting seven public forums on the topic and urging resident to vote yes on their plan for a new school building.
“$86 million of that would be spread across the 12 towns by enrollment percentage if this vote were to go through,” Sanborn said.
The Current Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich
The remaining amount would be funded through the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
“Obviously this is not an everyday expenditure that our district is used to,” Sanborn said.
“It’s been a four or five year process of apprising local officials about this and now it’s time to bring it to the voters.”
Proponents say the current building was constructed over 40 years ago and has outlived its usefulness, while those opposed contend that $127 million is a whole lot of money to be spending when many local districts are in need as well.
Sanborn said the costs for a new building compared to renovations to the current 40 year old facility is virtually the same.
“There would be a tremendous amount of unknowns in a reconstruction, as well, because there is a lot of code compliance and ADA compliance issues that would need to be remedied with this facility as well,” Sanborn said.
The polls will be open from noon until 8 PM across the district.
By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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