REGIONAL – After being the elephant in the room as 11 North Shore communities argued over how to pay for a new Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School, the mayor of the city of Haverhill has decided it would be better to pay a higher percentage of the construction and operating costs if the school is built on the Northern Essex Community College campus in Haverhill campus.
“To move forward, we may have to give up our advantage,” Haverhill Mayor Melinda E. Barrett told the City Council last week.
For years, Haverhill has enjoyed a sizable advantage over its smaller neighbors that together make up the Whittier Tech district. And the smaller towns and cities, led by Newburyport and Rowley, have been threatening to withdraw from the district or hold up the construction of the new school on the college campus if Haverhill does not pay more.
Under the current cost-sharing formula, Haverhill would pay 44 percent of the costs of new construction, but sends 66 percent of the students enrolled in school. The current capital cost sharing formula, in place for decades, is based on each community’s total kindergarten through grade 12 enrollment.
The day-to-day operational costs are allocated based on the number of students each community sends to the school.
The proposed new building to replace the 50-year-old school and its aging sewage treatment plant would be built by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), but only if all 11 communities agreed to a new charter. The MSBA is expected to pay for about half of the construction costs.
Barrett dropped her opposition to a new formula primarily because the building on the college campus is expected to cost less. To build on the current campus, the school would have to pay an estimated $25 million for a new fire access road, a new sewer plant and new parking area in addition to the building itself.
Also, if the school is on the college campus, students from the 11 cities and towns could take college-level courses.
Salisbury Town Manager Neil Harrington introduced a new cost-sharing formula that would have Haverhill pay a higher percentage of the total cost, but would be about the same amount of dollars that the city would have paid for the proposed $444.6 million new school. In 2024, that proposal was defeated on a vote of 10 to 1.
Harrington’s formula would have Haverhill pay 50 percent of the cost based on the current formula and 50 percent of the cost that is based on enrollment.
Harrington’s plan depends on successfully lowering the cost of a new school with a one-time $30 million payment from money the state has collected through the voter-approved millionaire’s tax.
In addition to Haverhill, Rowley and Newburyport the other communities in the district are Amesbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Ipswich, Merrimac, Newbury, Salisbury and West Newbury. ♦
