The Greater Lowell Technical School Committee and those inspiring to be appointed to it,should be paying close attention to what is happening in Dracut with that School District and layoffs and chaos in the school department because they lack adequate funding.
I believe you are watching the planned renovation project for the Greater Lowell Technical become a casualty of the Dracut School District.
(That should increase the turmoil and tension that already exist on this board, especially when one of the current Lowell members isn’t 100% behind the project anyway.)
The Technical School wants to do a repair/replacement, code upgrade project plus renovations to science labs, cafeteria, kitchen and an atrium addition with a total estimated cost of $65,809,939.
The Technical School needs the approval of 3 of the 4 sending communities to get State money and the balance of the cost for renovations gets passed on to Lowell, Dracut, Tyngsboro and Dunstable.
Last year Dracut residents approved doing a renovation for their own High School for around $47,200,000.00 +/- and this year they are looking at eliminating teachers and programs district wide. Do you think they will want to fund the Technical School any more than they already have to when they can’t fund their own district? I don’t!
Concern exist among some of the current Tech School Committee already that Tyngsboro will be against the plan unless the school switches to the State GIC insurance program because former Tech School board member Steve O’Neil has shown that by switching, the renovation cost to the communities would be lessened and that the Tech Budget could absorb the cost or a large part of it.
You think any Tech Committee or wannabe Tech School Committee member is going to come out and recommend that the school switch to the GIC and face the Union wrath? This is Mass not Wisconsin so I’m betting not but it may be the only way to save the renovation project.
If Dracut residents are angry over layoffs and lack of funding in their own district and are unhappy with the state funding formula, combined with their State Rep’s (who also serves Tyngsboro) concern over the admission policies, than Dracut voters could easily say NO to an additional cost from the Tech school whose Dracut contribution went up this year already. Combined with Tyngsboro that NO vote would kill the project and the school would lose out on the state money.
The proposal for the Tech would reach voters at next year’s Town meeting.
A case could be made that the Technical School has (much like Lowell) not done enough maintenance / repairs over the years and let the building deteriorate to the point it requires this much repair.
You also have to wonder why a Technical School which is supposed to train students in plumbing, electrical and other code based vocations has allowed its school to be in a position that they have to spend millions of dollars just on code upgrades.
I need to ask, if the school requires this much money to bring it up to code, is it safe? Does Tyngsboro inspect this building and has it passed code requirements? If so are the upgrades mandatory and what percentage of the cost is just for code upgrades?
It could also be argued that the cost has grown tremendously from where it started out and even as late has March of this year the Tech School committee rejected a proposal that called for repair/replacement /code upgrade only with a total estimated cost of $54,156,691.
$11.5 million less than the school is looking for under the current proposal and one that doesn’t involve upgrading science rooms or adding an atrium.
There are plenty of people to blame for the Dracut situation from the current Supt who is running away from the town after hiring administrators with large salaries and more para’s then ever, to the past school committee for approving teacher contracts with raises that cost the town in step increases also, to the present school committee for not voting to close the Parker School and save approx. $225, 00.00 or force a switch to the GIC Insurance to save money.
Mo matter where the blame rest, the Greater Lowell Technical School and their planned renovations looks to me to also be a casualty of the Dracut School District.
That tech school needs a new building rather than repairs. I’m opposed in putting money into a building that’s more than 35 years old
There was a 10 to 15 year gap when the school had no maintenance electrician, during that time student did a large amount of the maintance in the building which is part of the problem because they did not have the knowledge or experience or anyone checking to see – did you do the job correctly.
There is a systemic problem in Dracut where funds serving in-district programs have been transferred to schools outside the Dracut district. According to http://facebook.com/DracutAct4ed, the shift is now $1.3 million to the Lowell Voke and $1.4 million to out-of-district Special Education programs. This out-of-district transfer is by far the biggest reason for Dracut’s massive layoffs in-district.
(Combined with the $1.1 million drop in education jobs funds that supported in-district programs, and a $1 million increase in health/pension costs — despite a 20% reduction in teaching staff since 2007 — the recent layoffs represent a train wreck that was waiting to happen.)
Enrollment at Dracut High is going to reach rock-bottom next year due in part to an exodus of 138 DHS students (out of ~1000) to Greater Lowell Voke, from 2008 to 2013. Once the new $60 million high school is built/renovated, there is hope that in-district enrollment will creep back up.
If Dracut’s share of a bill for a new Lowell Voke is based on enrollment in 2013, then this might be the worst time for Dracut to back a large Voke construction project because its share will be larger. Furthermore, Dracut taxpayers would be wise to question Chapter 70 formulas that force Lowell to set a school budget that provides $12,779 per pupil in FY11, where Dracut’s per pupil spending is now dropping and will go below $9,800 in FY13, unless the school committee starts charging much higher fees for buses and for extracurricular activities. Meanwhile, per pupil spending at Lowell Voke has little connection to the reality of the districts it serves, as the formula appears to be based in large part on the wages of engineers working in Billerica and Chelmsford. So the Voke now spends over $18,000 per pupil.
If the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, it won’t be long before state formulas require the Voke to spend twice as much per pupil as they require the Dracut schools to spend.
“If Dracut’s share of a bill for a new Lowell Voke is based on enrollment in 2013, then this might be the worst time for Dracut to back a large Voke construction project”
FYI it turns out that Dracut’s share of the voke bill is not based on 2013 enrollment levels… it is based on total K-12 (or maybe grade 1-12) school age population. At least this is the current rule they are using, according to the public hearing at Harmony Hall last Wednesday night. Private/Parochial school enrollment is counted. Home-schools, i don’t know.
Dracut currently has 20% of the voke enrollment. Even if Dracut had 15% of the Voke enrollment it would still be asked to come up with 20.7% of the renovation costs according to Santoro. For that figure is Dracut’s share of the school-age population of all four communities.
to be clear, I meant to say “voke renovation bill”