Superintendent asks Middlefield to rebate roughly $275,000 in permit fees for Regional School District 13 project

At the June 3, 2026 meeting of the Regional School District 13 building committee, Superintendent Sydney said the district has formally asked town officials to waive or rebate a portion of local building permit fees tied to the Memorial School renovation and expansion.

"Every dollar that goes to a building fee is a dollar that has to come off the project," Sydney said, explaining that permit fees reduce the project's construction budget and that the district has already paid $362,168. She and project staff said the district is seeking relief for the remaining roughly $275,000 so that referendum funds go directly to construction rather than local fees.

The request prompted a detailed legal and procedural response from Middlefield officials. A Middlefield selectman described two potential routes: (1) treat the regional school district as a municipality under state statute so the town may waive municipal fees, or (2) pursue a rebate through a supplemental appropriation that would require a board of finance review, public hearings and a town meeting vote. "I would not feel comfortable doing that. I think that belongs with the town meeting," the selectman said when asked whether the selectmen could unilaterally grant the rebate.

Town officials emphasized that state law uses discretionary language for municipal fee waivers (a "may" provision), and that Middlefield currently lacks an ordinance that explicitly governs fee waivers for large, public projects. That combination means a waiver is not automatic even if the district qualifies as a municipal entity under the permit form's "municipal" checkbox, and a rebate via appropriation would take time: board of finance public hearings followed by a town meeting are part of the required steps.

Committee members and project managers warned that timing matters. The district must finalize a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) and decide value-engineering alternates by the June decision window; if a rebate takes longer than several weeks, the district may have to reduce its owner contingency or accept fewer upgrades to stay within the state-funded project cap. Project finance staff said owner contingency currently stands at roughly $1.3 million and that the paid permit fees have already reduced available contingency.

The committee agreed to immediate next steps: district and town attorneys will meet to clarify whether Regional School District 13 can be treated as a municipality for waiver purposes and, if not, to outline the quickest feasible path for a rebate. Committee members asked the district to prepare a specific rebate amount for the town's public hearing process and to coordinate a plan that minimizes schedule risk to the GMP.

If the town ultimately approves a rebate through the appropriation route, project staff said refunded funds would increase owner contingency and could be used to restore alternates or reduce temporary cost cuts; if the rebate is delayed beyond the GMP decision, staff warned that previously paid fees will have already been counted as spent and may not be available for immediate use without appropriate budget maneuvers.

The committee did not take a formal vote on a waiver at the meeting; it instead directed staff to schedule an attorney-to-attorney meeting, to prepare a proposal amount for public hearings and to return with a recommendation at or before the June 17 meeting.