Bueller?

As enrollment declines in the Old Rochester Regional School District, Tri-Town officials at a July 13 joint meeting of Marion and Mattapoisett’s Select Boards and Rochester’s Board of Selectmen called for an enrollment study on the OR high school and junior high.

Marion Select Board member John Waterman said that a study could help the towns and district “to manage or better control” the cost of schooling long-term.

Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail noted that he and Superintendent Mike Nelson are already working on it, and that he has a call with the UMass Boston Collins Center for Public Management later this week.

The center is already working on an enrollment study in Mattapoisett for the town’s elementary schools, and Town Administrator Mike Lorenco said that he’d be interested in a regional study, as well as sitting in on McGrail’s call.

“There’s no pushback from us on looking at where we’re at,” Nelson said, in terms of enrollment.

But, the superintendent noted, figuring out the right time to do the study could be tricky, especially because of the uncertainty brought by covid. He added that it would be a good question for those at the Collins Center.