Old Rochester School Committee withdraws $12 million debt Town Meeting item

A Town Meeting article that would authorize the Old Rochester Regional School District to borrow $12 million to address facility improvements was withdrawn following pushback from some Rochester and Mattapoisett officials.

At an Old Rochester School Committee meeting Wednesday, April 30, members unanimously voted to withdraw the article authorizing the debt that would have been voted on at Town Meetings in Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester.

The $12 million was based on an assessment of the Old Rochester Junior High School and High School building conducted by project management firm LeftField.

The assessment found that much of the building’s infrastructure — such as HVAC, security, public address and water heating systems, among other items — was in need of repair or replacement.

At respective Town Meeting agenda reviews, the Rochester Select Board and Mattapoisett Select Board did not recommend voting in favor of the debt authorization. The Marion Select Board recommended the item.

Old Rochester School Committee member James Muse said that since some town officials “did not understand or didn’t take any further time to understand the necessity” of the debt authorization, it was “prudent” to withdraw the article, though the school facility issues would still remain.

“The cost invariably will increase, and we run the risk of substantial increases if we have a major failure on any of the systems that were identified,” Muse said.

The Old Rochester building assessment conducted by LeftField Project Management included a list of facility equipment and systems that the firm determined to be “lacking, likely to fail, or not presently functioning and require repair or replacement,” the assessment document said.

The assessment also said that “the most cost-effective solution is to perform the work as one project,” an approach that could involve only one contractor and would minimize disturbances to students and reduce upfront project costs and longer-term operation costs, the document said.

In a statement, superintendent Michael Nelson said the assessment was “invaluable” as it allowed for “informed short term and long term capital planning.”

“It is imperative that our school community identifies a way forward to support the facility needs of ORR related to our aging building systems,” Nelson said. “In other words, the school district would ideally like to address facility capital needs proactively compared to reactively.”

LeftField outlined a $15 million estimated budget for the project, though that estimate decreased to the amount of $12 million the Old Rochester School District officially sought to borrow.

“This is a big decision,” Rochester Select Board member Adam Murphy said at an April 22 Rochester Select Board meeting. “It's problematic for me to make a decision to support something that I haven't seen any supporting documentation for at all.”

The approval by the School Committee to withdraw the article came after a recommendation to do so by a facilities subcommittee.

“Everybody on this committee and in the public should understand that this is a long process to be able to do this, and when we don’t have the funding, or put the funding in place, we run considerable risk to have more expensive results,” Muse said.

Old Rochester has a current bond set to expire in fiscal year 2025. That puts the school district “on the clock” in acquiring new debt in order to invest in the Old Rochester school building, superintendent Michael Nelson said at a March 7 school committee meeting.

Though the School Committee opted to not pursue the debt authorization this spring, Nelson said in a statement he expects “the conversation on how best to fund the facility needs” of Old Rochester to continue.