Final test awaits $97M Westport school

Voters called to polls Tuesday to decide project’s fate

Posted 2/23/18

WESTPORT — Special Town Meeting (attendance 1,005) voters approved it a month ago, now Westport’s proposed new middle-high school goes back to the voters for one final test.

The $97 …

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Final test awaits $97M Westport school

Voters called to polls Tuesday to decide project’s fate

Posted

WESTPORT — Special Town Meeting (attendance 1,005) voters approved it a month ago, now Westport’s proposed new middle-high school goes back to the voters for one final test.

The $97 million project, of which the state would pay about 40 percent, will be appear on a town-wide special election ballot next Tuesday, February 27. If it clears this hurdle, final design, engineering and construction on what would the town’s most ambitious project will begin.

If approved at the polls, the new school’s cost would be paid with a 30-year bond. Residents with property valued at $400,000 would pay an additional $412 per year in property taxes, the special town meeting audience was told. Those with property valued at $100,000 would pay an additional $103 per year.

The question passed with ease at that special town meeting — nobody spoke against it and Town Moderator Steven Fors declared a “clear two-thirds majority” after a show of hands vote in the Westport High School auditorium and out in the cafeteria where the overflow crowd sat.

Since then, the School Building Committee has scheduled more forums and information centers, and letters to the editor — most pro-new school— have been flowing.

Advocates say this is the town’s most affordable opportunity to deal both with the closed middle school and an aging high school. Miss the chance for state participation and Westport would likely get stuck with an entire inflated bill.

“Voting no does not reduce our expenses,” wrote School Building Committee member and former selectman Ann Vera Jr. “It will add to costs of operations. It will not eliminate the need to pay a much higher cost in the near future.”

Added recent WHS grad Christopher Hartnett, “Voting yes on the school building project is the only reasonable option. Although I do understand those who cannot afford the increase in taxes, the school building needs are not going to go away, as it is only going to cost more in the future. … This is an investment for the community, it's an investment in your children and grandchildren.”

Opponents, though, say the town is already awash in debt for an underfunded pension plan, a new police station and more. They also argue that it makes little sense to build a big new school at a time that school enrollment is on the decline, and that other options, specifically some sort of merger with Dartmouth schools, have not been fully explored.

“I find myself amazed that we as citizens are considering incurring at least another $60 million in indebtedness to construct a new school when there is absolutely no conversation about the existing, and rapidly deteriorating with each passing year, financial condition of our town,” wrote Bill Reed. He warned of a looming “train-wreck,” “train-wreck … which is already unfolding, and whose end result can only be a sharp reduction in Town services and expenses —including in the school system — a huge tax increase, or some combination of both.”

“I hope we learned from that and Boston’s Big Dig how government spends other people’s money,” added Marilyn Pease. “Somehow this deal that’s too good to pass up is losing its luster.”

The question

Wording of the new school question that voters see when they go to the polls Tuesday does not mention a specific dollar amount, a detail that school officials and selectmen is dictated by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Opponents have seized on that, saying the wording leaves the town unprotected should the MSBA not fulfill it end of the deal. But school advocates and selectmen say MSBA has never done that and, if it did, the town could call a halt to the project.

The ballot wording states:

Shall the Town of Westport be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition two-and-one-half, so called, the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued to pay the costs of the design, management, and construction of a new Westport Middler-High School to be located at the existing Westport Middle School site, 400 Old County Road, Westport, MA, which project shall include but not be limited to the abatement and demolition of the existing middle school building, constructing, fully furnishing and equipping a new Middle-High School to serve students in grades 5 through 12 and any appropriate related programming, and including associated site improvements, utilities, roadways, parking, athletic fields, tennis courts, domestic well, septic system, and all incidental or related expenses?

Polling precinct locations — Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Precinct A - American Legion Hall, 489 Sanford Road

Precinct B - Town Hall Annex, 856 Main Road

Precinct C - Alice Macomber School, 154 Gifford Road

Precinct D - Briggs Road Fire Station, 85 Briggs Road

Precinct E - Westport High School, 19 Main Road

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