SAUGUS ― A special Town Meeting will decide whether or not Saugus will help pay for the new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School (Northeast Metro Tech).
The meeting will convene on Monday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Northeast Metro Tech has already received a grant for more than $140 million from Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to help fund the building project. The total cost of the project will be $314 million, with the deficit coming from the communities the school serves, which includes Saugus.
Town Counsel John Vasapolli said that, because Northeast Metro Tech is a regional school, it has to get approval from the towns and cities in its district before construction can begin.
“My understanding is that, under Massachusetts general laws, each member of the (Northeast Metro Tech) district has to vote before the school can assume a debt,” Vasapolli said.
Vasapolli said that the Saugus Town Meeting vote is the final step in this approval process, and funding will be solidified for the vocational school if the vote is affirmative. If Town Meeting members decline to fund the building, then the matter would move to a town-wide special election.
Northeast Metro Tech is looking to the communities in its district to pay for the funding of a new building. The current building has outdated systems, is not compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and is overcrowded.
In order to move onto the next phase of building, the communities that are part of the school’s district, including Saugus, have to vote to approve funding the rest of the project’s sum, $177 million, by Dec. 23.
Vasapolli said that with the way Northeast Metro Tech’s funding formula is set up, towns like Saugus tend to pay more money to the school than cities like Malden.
“It seems to be heavily weighed against the town of Saugus,” Vasapolli said. “It’s weighted so that the towns pay a little more than the cities.”
While the current warrant for the special Town Meeting does not have a set amount that Saugus would be paying for the school yet, Vasapolli said that the Finance Committee will meet to determine the final figures before the Town Meeting.
