Cadime Notes ‘Significant Impact’ if School Project Passes

Seekonk residents will be required to pay their share of the cost of a new building for Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School.

A special election has been scheduled for October 24 for the voters to decide on funding for the $285.9 million project.  

Some reimbursement of the cost would be paid by the Massachusetts School Building Association, which will be holding a vote on August 30.

“The anticipation is the MSBA will provide funding of $83 million,” Town Administrator Shawn Cadime said at the August 16 Select Board meeting.

The remaining $200 million would be paid by the 11-member communities, which include Sherborn, Medfield, Walpole, Millis, Medway, Norfolk, Wrentham, Plainville, Franklin, North Attleboro, and Seekonk.

According to Cadime, Seekonk’s share would be $1.1 million over a 30 year period.

“That’s a significant financial impact,” Cadime said, adding the Select Board would need to hold a discussion regarding future town budgets. A debt exclusion, which is a temporary tax increase, may be proposed.

“We can fully expect to have reductions on the Seekonk Public Schools as well as the town side to offset the $1.1 million if we don’t have an additional funding source associated with (the project),” Cadime noted.

The first anticipated debt payment would be for fiscal year 2028 if the project is approved. Cadime said that provides the town with a four year window to plan for annual budgets.

Tri-County is operating at a capacity of 1000 students, who have chosen one of 16 vocational programs.

The district has carefully maintained the building, but the infrastructure and building systems are now beyond their useful life, according to members of the TCRVTHS Project Team.

The existing deficiencies include wear and tear/failures of major sub systems, plumbing, electrical, and building envelope.

In 2014, a structural review was performed with the purpose of providing professional insight as to the condition of the school building. At that time, it was determined that the cost to repair failing systems with no updates to the building structure would be in excess of $150,000,000.  

Many options were studied to solve the existing facility issues, including:

• renovation of the existing building,
• addition and renovation of the existing building,
• a new building and demolition of the existing building.

The building options all cost about the same, but the disruption of a renovation project made less sense to the School Committee, and community than the new building proposal, which was selected as the preferred option.