SOUTHWICK – During last week’s school committee meeting, a motion was made to approve the FY18 capital improvement plan. Approving the plan means that the school committee is allowed to take on debt, which the committee needs the approval of all three towns in the school district.
While Southwick and Tolland voted in favor of approving the plan at their respective annual town meetings recently, Granville did not approve the plan at their annual town meeting on May 8.
The school district has submitted a letter to all three towns, informing them that the town officials can decide to hold a vote. Under Ch. 71 Section 16 D of Massachusetts General law, the school committee is given the authority to borrow so they can come back with another plan, which is to vote and approve the previous capital improvement plan they have had in place.
All three towns have the option to hold a special town meeting in order to take a vote, or if 60 days go by and there is no action taken by Southwick, Tolland, or Granville, the capital improvement plan would go through anyways.
According to Superintendent Jen Willard, the Town of Southwick has confirmed that there will be no action taken, but there hasn’t been any response from Tolland yet.
However, the Town of Granville will be holding a special town meeting on June 19 for the vote on the capital improvement plan.
If Granville residents decide to once again vote down the plan, the school committee will have to create another vote. The school committee also has several other options, including to return back with another vote, amend the capital, reduce the amount of the borrowing, leave the vote the way it is, or hold a district-wide election.
Willard told the Westfield News that the capital improvement plan hasn’t changed since Granville last voted it down at their annual town meeting on May 8 and Granville town officials don’t expect a different outcome from the special town meeting vote.
“I’m not really sure what they (school district) expect the outcome to be,” said Select Board Chairman David Ripley.
With the FY18 capital improvement plan budget set for $600,000, Ripley said that Granville isn’t pleased with the amount this year. From fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2017, the capital improvement plan has been $350,000.
“It doesn’t sit well with the town,” said Ripley.
In this year’s plan, the school district is using the $600,000 for an ADA (American with Disabilities Act) accessible playground, a paving project, and new technology. Also, $200,000 of the money is going towards purchasing mid-size buses that will be used for Granville students to get from Granville to the Southwick campus every day.
“There’s a need to replace vehicles as they age out,” said school district business manager Stephen Presnal. “Our intent in FY18 is that we would purchase mid-size vehicles which are a little better suited for our transportation needs in Granville.”
Superintendent Jen Willard and the rest of the school committee will be waiting to find out the results of Granville’s special town meeting on June 19. (WNG File Photo)
Back in 2011, before the school district regionalized with Granville, the district was pursuing a school building project from the MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Authority). The original reason for the school building project was to create an expansion of Woodland School, as it was becoming overcrowded. With talks of reconfiguring schools in the district, the decision was made to use the school building project to make Southwick Regional High School expand from grades nine through twelve, to grades seven through twelve.
In the fiscal year 2012, the district authorized to borrow $600,000, but only issued notes in the amount of $368,558.
Going into fiscal year 2013 when Granville joined the district, the original capital improvement plan was set at $600,000 and with all three towns voting in favor in 2011 of Granville joining the region, there was a ballot election in January 2012 for the school building project. The vote passed in Granville and Tolland but failed in Southwick.
After that result, the school district had several conversations with town officials and decided to make another request for only the town of Southwick to vote on the school building project.
After modifying the project, which included reducing capital borrowing, the scope of the project, and the financing model, the school building project passed by a narrow margin in May 2012.
Previously mentioned that the capital improvement plan has been $350,000 since fiscal year 2013, Presnal noted that the reason for the increase was to address long-term issues at certain areas of the school district’s campus.
“It needed to be increased at some point,” said Presnal.
Presnal also added that the financial impact of the $600,000 for all three towns will not go into effect until fiscal year 2019. The school district borrowed the money, the interest and principle payments are made a year after and are done as serial notes. Presnal said that there will be five notes at $120,000 each, which will total up to the $600,000. The first note would be due a year after the capital improvement plan is issued; in fiscal year 2019.
