Chatham: Harwich Holding School Project ‘Hostage’ - Harwich Will Revisit Vote To Postpone Funding

Members of the Harwich and Chatham select boards had very different reactions to last week’s summit held to discuss opening up the Monomoy Regional School District agreement to revise its funding formula.

 Chatham board members accused their neighbors of holding proposed repairs to the Monomoy Regional Middle School “hostage,” while a member of the Harwich board said Chatham’s attitude at the April 8 session was akin to “negotiating with terrorists.”

 While they said they remain open to talks, Chatham board members indicated they were not inclined to open the regional agreement. Their Harwich counterparts, meanwhile, said that the current funding formula is unsustainable and indicated disappointment at the Chatham board’s position. The two boards held separate debriefings on last week’s session, Chatham late last Tuesday and Harwich on Monday.

 Caught in the middle of the situation is the middle school project, which calls for nearly $12 million to replace trim, siding and windows to address water intrusion that has contributed to air quality problems inside the school, located on Crowell Road in Chatham. Both towns’ voters must approve the expenditure at town meeting and subsequent elections for the project to proceed. Last year both towns approved borrowing $2.5 million to begin work on the project. Harwich’s share of the remaining estimated cost, based on the same funding formula that governs the district budget, will be $6,918,300, while Chatham’s share will be $2,088,730.

While the Chatham board unanimously supported the article, the Harwich board voted unanimously to recommend that it be indefinitely postponed, a procedural method for killing the measure. Both towns' finance committees support the articles.

 On Monday, members of the Harwich board indicated they were open to changing their recommendation on the middle school repairs, but withheld a vote until April 28, when the school building committee will deliver a report on the project.

 Chatham officials were taken by surprise by the Harwich board’s position on the project.

 “I was blown away,” said Chatham board chair Michael Schell, who attended the April 8 session with board member Jeff Dykens. “I was flabbergasted.” Until there is a resolution of the middle school disagreement, “I don’t know that we’re going to have a lot to talk about” regarding the funding formula, he said.

 Recommending postponement of the middle school project is “egregious,” said board member Shareen Davis, and risks the health of students and staff as well as making no economic sense.

 “It’s just going to end up costing both towns more money,” she said. “It’s just outrageous.”

 Board member Dean Nicastro was even more blunt. “It’s almost as if this is a bargaining chip to get Chatham to change the formula,” he said. “They want more money, that’s what they want. I’m not inclined to open the formula.”

 Schell agreed, saying his impression was that the middle school project is “kind of a hostage to a willingness on Chatham’s part to amend the formula to their benefit.”

 Board member Cory Metters also criticized Harwich for having no “crystal clear plan” regarding changes to the funding formula. Under the current agreement, which is based on enrollment, Harwich pays 76 percent of the budget while Chatham covers the remaining 24 percent.

 Harwich board chair Jeff Handler, who attended the April 8 session with board member Peter Piekarski, said the purpose of the meeting, which his board requested, was to start a conversation on the regional funding formula, not to immediately propose changes.

 “We had no plan other than to listen and understand,” he said. It was clear from the outset of the meeting that Chatham officials were not there to listen but to “respond and defend,” he said. Watching the Chatham board’s reaction to the session made it clear that there is no intention on Chatham’s part to open the regional agreement.

 “Now I have clarity as to precisely where Chatham is with this regional agreement,” he said.

 Harwich board member Michael MacAskill said while he intends to support the middle school project at town meeting — despite the board’s previous vote — the increase in the town’s share of the Monomoy budget will eventually force cuts to school funding, unless the formula is changed. Monomoy school spending currently represents 41 percent of Harwich’s annual budget, while it is 21 percent of Chatham’s total spending, Town Administrator Joseph Powers said.

Chatham board members brought up the town’s providing Harwich with sewage treatment at its wastewater plant and the previous agreement for both towns to pay for their own elementary school, which saved Harwich almost $1 million. That was disingenuous and akin to “negotiating with terrorists,” MacAskill said.

 “Sooner or later town meeting is going to say no” if Harwich share of school funding continues to escalate, MacAskill said.

 The problems with the middle school originated in renovations done when the building was Chatham’s middle and high school, Harwich board member Donald Howell said. “We inherited the building in that shape, we didn’t create it,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to me that they’re tethered in reality,” he said of Chatham’s position regarding the regional agreement’s funding formula.

 Harwich board member Julie Kavanaugh also said she would support the middle school project at town meeting. “I wouldn’t want members of my family to have to go into a building that has the problems that one has,” she said. She expressed support for the two boards to continue a dialog with the aim of strengthening the school district.

 “We built a wonderful thing together, the two towns,” she said. “Let’s continue to support it.”

 Harwich board members said their initial vote for indefinite postponement was at least partly based on a lack of information. School building committee co-chair Ed McManus said the group was prepared to make a presentation, but previous select board agendas were unable to accommodate them. He and the select board members agreed that the building committee would give its presentation at the board’s April 28 meeting, a week before the May 5 town meeting.

 “At the end of the day, it is ultimately up to the voters,” Handler said.

 Schell said the Chatham board remains open to hearing Harwich’s concerns about the funding formula, but won’t be intimidated into making changes to earn support for the middle school project.

 “I can have that conversation,” he said. “But to say we’re not going to do something that everybody has to be able to see is crucially necessary this year, as a way of leveraging the argument that they’re trying to make…I can’t entertain it, period.”