NEWBURYPORT — Newburyport’s share of capital costs for Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School could fall sharply under a proposed per-pupil funding formula, but expected opposition from Haverhill could jeopardize the change and a potential school building project.
Mayor Sean Reardon updated the city council on the issue during its Aug. 3 meeting following the final meeting of the Regional Agreement Amendment Committee. The Regional Agreement Amendment Committee is a 15-member subcommittee consisting of one voting representative from each of the 11 communities in the Whittier Tech School District and four nonvoting Whittier Tech School Committee members.
“The biggest sticking point obviously was the capital cost allocation,” Mayor Reardon said.
Nine of Whittier’s 11 member communities ultimately supported allocating capital costs according to student enrollment. The recommendation will now be forwarded to the Whittier School Committee. If approved there, the proposed amendments will go before all 11 member communities for ratification.
Mayor Reardon said a vote taken at the beginning of June on the per-pupil formula received support from eight communities, with Haverhill opposed and Salisbury abstaining because they wanted to come up with a new model. Georgetown was absent but later voted in favor, bringing the total supporting the proposal to nine.
Salisbury subsequently proposed a “50-50 option” that would allocate half of Whittier’s capital costs under the existing formula and half under a per-pupil formula. Mayor Reardon said the proposal was intended to limit the financial impact on Haverhill but received only seven of the nine votes required to advance.
Under the existing formula, Mayor Reardon said Newburyport is responsible for approximately 11.7% of Whittier’s capital costs. Ward 6 Councilor Mary C. DeLai estimated that the city’s share would fall to about 2% under the enrollment-based formula and would have been approximately 6.4% under Salisbury’s compromise.
Haverhill sends close to 70% of Whittier’s students and would face a significantly larger share of capital costs under an enrollment-based system, Mayor Reardon said.
“It’s pretty clear that Haverhill probably will not vote in favor of that,” Mayor Reardon said.
The disagreement comes as Whittier considers whether to continue with a Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) process that already includes a feasibility study costing more than $2 million.
When DeLai asked if Haverhill’s rejection of the amended agreement could effectively end the MSBA project, Mayor Reardon acknowledged the possibility.
“It could,” Mayor Reardon said. “There might be a couple different options you could try there, but essentially, it would kill whatever is in front of them.”
Mayor Reardon said he was exploring other options is trying to arrange a meeting with the three representatives from the communities that, like Newburyport, opposed Salisbury’s 50-50 proposal.
