Voters deny $288 million high school building project a second time

LAKEVILLE — Residents in Lakeville headed to the polls on Saturday, June 20 and voted to deny the Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School building project. 

There were 903 “no” votes and 680 “yes” votes.

Lakeville was one of four towns in the five-town district to reject the project. The total vote count for the five towns was 2,275 yes and 3,780 no.

The other towns voting no were Acushnet, with 316 yes and 1,604 no; Rochester, with 579 yes and 831 no; and Carver, wih 241 yes and 251 no.

As in the previous vote, only Mattapoisett supported the new building, with 459 yes votes and 188 no votes.

After the initial denial of the vote in November, Old Colony proposed the same $288 million project plan to construct a new school building that would increase the student population and address aging infrastructure, failing systems and a lack of fire protection.

Updates would also include more classroom space, updated equipment and updated technology as part of an entirely new high school building. 

The increased space would also allow the school to offer three new programs for HVAC, plumbing and dental assisting.

The project would receive $129 million in grant funding from the state and an additional $11 million in incentives. 

The remaining cost of $148 million would be shared by the five member towns. 

Lakeville was estimated to pay around $39 million for the building. 

The member towns of Old Colony had the option of presenting voters with a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion which would raise taxes a certain amount per household until the project is paid for, usually after 30 years. 

Old Colony Superintendent Aaron Polansky was disappointed with the results and said he and the school committee will soon evaluate the next steps forward. 

“We had a greater turnout, but very similar results and so I think at this point we really just have to take a step back and evaluate what our options are,” Polansky said.