HAVERHILL – Whittier Vocational Tech Regional High School and the Northern Essex Community College (NECC) have moved a step closer to developing a shared campus that might be funded in part by the state.
Ten of the 11 communities that make up the Whittier Tech district have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as a good-faith commitment, that they will work together to approach the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) about building a new tech school on the college campus.
Only the Rowley SelectBoard voted not to sign the memorandum. The board said it opposed the proposed agreement because of a “rushed timeframe” and Whittier’s lack of transparency on costs.
The SelectBoard sent a letter to the MSBA voicing its concerns over entering into another agreement with Whittier and the shared campus project.
Selectman Bob Snow called the shared campus “a bad idea.”
The MSBA, which could fund about half of the total costs of a new building, is scheduled to consider the new campus on Dec. 13, deciding whether to allow the Whittier campus in its months-long competition for funding.
Signing the MOU does not obligate the taxpayers of any city or town to fund the new building.
Last January, the voters in the 11 communities overwhelmingly rejected building a $444.6 million building for Whittier to replace the 50-year-old campus in Haverhill. That vote forced the school and the municipalities to go back to the drawing board.
Newburyport Mayor Sean Reardon said the discussions between the schools and the communities could result in a new Whittier governing agreement. The current agreement, which requires that a majority of voters in 11 communities, approve new capital expenditures and other governing decisions.
Only the voters of Haverhill, whose students make up 70 percent of the school population, approved the new building. The opposition stemmed from the high costs of the new building and the lack of transparency by Whittier in designing it.
Hoping to show a united front in favor of the shared campus building, Whittier Tech and NECC asked all of the communities to indicate it will support the concept.
“We anticipate shared space located on NECC’s Haverhill campus can overcome some of the challenges of Whittier Tech’s previous attempt to secure funding for a new facility on its existing site by reducing the cost to our member communities while expanding capacity for vocational education and access to postsecondary credentials needed for our regional workforce,” Whittier Supt. Maureen Lynch and NECC President Glenn reads a cover letter to the agreement signed by.
The Whittier school district is made up of Amesbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Ipswich, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury and West Newbury.
For the next few months, the Whittier and NECC Shared Campus Working Group will focus on reducing the new project’s cost to municipalities, while improving access to education for the region.
The Healey-Driscoll Administration supports the shared campus project and last month MSBA staff along with a team of planners and architects visited the proposed site on the NECC campus.
The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute is studying future area demographics to determine the potential benefits of the proposed technical high school and community college partnership. The report is expected by the end of the year.
Rowley Selectman Clifford Pierce said he would like to read the Donahue Institute report before signing the agreement. ♦
