FreeLake district vies for contract to bring Acushnet students to Apponequet
From left: Town Manager Andrew Sukeforth, executive assistant Colleen Lieb, and Select Board members Paul Hunt, Lorraine Carboni and Christopher Plonka at the joint Lakeville-Freetown Select Board meeting Nov. 3 in Freetown. Photo by Grace Roche
From left: Town Manager Andrew Sukeforth, executive assistant Colleen Lieb, and Select Board members Paul Hunt, Lorraine Carboni and Christopher Plonka at the joint Lakeville-Freetown Select Board meeting Nov. 3 in Freetown. Photo by Grace Roche
LAKEVILLE — Apponequet Regional High School is among four schools hoping to sign a contract welcoming students from Acushnet, a district without its own high school.
FreeLake superintendent Barbara Starkie brought an update on the district's progress on an agreement with its neighbor to a joint meeting of the Lakeville and Freetown Select Boards Monday, Nov. 3.
Acushnet’s current contract with New Bedford and Fairhaven high schools expires at the end of the 2025-26 school year, and the town must choose at least one district to sign a new contract with.
It has been sending students to New Bedford since 2000 and Fairhaven since 2014, and both FreeLake and Old Rochester districts approached the Acushnet school committee in August hoping the district would send students to their high schools.
Students would still be able to apply to area high schools with school choice slots available, as well as Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School and Bristol Agricultural High School.
If Apponequet did receive Acushnet students, anyone currently enrolled in New Bedford or Fairhaven would be able to complete their high school education at the school they currently attend.
Starkie said the Acushnet district anticipated deciding which school or schools to sign the new contract with by the end of this year, with hopes of enrolling freshman starting September 2026.
“They're on a pretty quick timeline,” she said. “When we had our last conversation with Acushnet, they were thinking they’d have a decision by December.”
She said the FreeLake district wants Apponequet to be the only school, besides vocational high schools, Acushnet students go to.
This would mean it would not agree to a contract similar to the current one, with enrollment split between two districts.
“We are looking to be a single source provider, so if Acushnet is looking for a menu of options outside of Old Colony and outside of Bristol Aggie, we're no longer interested,” Starkie said.
According to her approximation, a deal with Acushnet could bring between 40-50 new students to the high school each year.
Apponequet would need to hire additional staff if there was an influx of students, but she said the facility itself could accommodate an increased school population.
While the agreement would bring Acushnet students to the school, Starkie said it is merely a tuition agreement — different from the agreement between Lakeville and Freetown.
“We would not become Freetown, Lakeville and Acushnet,” she said. “This is the Freetown Lakeville Regional School District welcoming the students of Acushnet in for a tuition agreement to take seats.”
This agreement would be a source of revenue for the district, although Starkie said negotiations were ongoing and she couldn’t disclose numbers publicly. She also said any terms the two districts might agree on would go to the School Committee, not Town Hall, for approval.
She said the district hopes to make a deal with Acushnet to increase its student population, which could help offset the revenue lost from FreeLake students who go to vocational schools.
“Enrollment, and getting students into your schools, no matter where you are, is very competitive,” Starkie said. “We are certainly looking to get students and get our enrollment back up in Apponequet. We'd like to be able to restore and maintain some of the programming that we've seen diminish over time.”
