Revote for Old Colony building project scheduled for June 20

ROCHESTER — The proposed $288 million Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School building project will be brought back to voters on June 20. 

Voters in Rochester, Mattapoisett, Lakeville, Acushnet and Carver will once again be asked to approve a plan to rebuild Old Colony that was rejected in a November vote.

At a Wednesday, April 22 meeting the Old Colony District School Committee unanimously approved a revote to take place.

School Committee Chair Nancy Souza said it is important for this project to come back to residents a second time. 

“We'd like to reach a broader audience and give it another try,” Souza said. “We are the voice of our students, and we just feel that it's important enough and a big enough project that we need to reach out to as many people as we can.”

The current, aging building is in need of repairs and infrastructural updates. It also does not meet state space requirements and lacks accessible bathrooms. These changes would be costly — it would take about $134 million to make all of the needed repairs.

The school received a grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to cover $129 million of the building project, leaving member towns collectively responsible for the remaining $159 million.

If the building project is approved in the revote, Rochester is estimated to pay $28 million and Mattapoisett is estimated to pay $8.5 million. 

“Financially is always a hard pill to swallow, but we're putting kids out into the workforce,” Souza said. “We'd like to right-size this building.”