Superintendent: school-building committee to pick preferred MSBA option next week; town budget pressures remain
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Summary
The superintendent said the School Building Committee expects to choose a preferred MSBA option next week, initiating schematic design, while town budget uncertainty and potential use of free cash pose risks to financing the town's portion of a school project.
The superintendent told the Dracut School Committee that the district's School Building Committee will likely vote next week to select a preferred option to send to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which would begin the schematic-design phase for a proposed project.
"The School Building Committee will be meeting a week from tomorrow...at that point it's expected that the committee will vote to select a preferred option just to submit to the MSBA," the superintendent said. He said a vote would trigger schematic design and that design work would continue through the summer.
Committee members raised budget concerns. The superintendent said he met with the town manager and the town's new finance director and described a positive initial meeting but emphasized remaining uncertainty. Members and administrators discussed a previously described scenario in which failure to enact a planned municipal fee (discussed as a trash fee in prior meetings) could increase town costs by roughly $4 million, and school-related shortfalls of approximately $2.6 million were included in the ongoing discussions. The superintendent warned that using large amounts of free cash could damage the town's bond rating and jeopardize financing options for major capital projects.
Committee members asked that the town manager be invited to school-building committee meetings and noted that vote timing for a potential warrant article and the town budget schedule will affect the timeline. One committee member suggested holding the start-time decision until the new school/redistricting information is clearer.
The superintendent also said federal education grants such as Title I and IDEA are not an immediate concern for the current fiscal year because the district has already drawn down significant portions of this year's awards, but he noted long-term federal funding uncertainty remains a distant risk.
No formal votes on the building project or town budget were taken at the meeting; the committee was briefed and set continuing coordination with town officials as a priority.