- Diman Regional Voc-Tech
- Overview
MSBA Project
Page Navigation
- Overview
- Construction Photos/Video
- Public Forum Videos
- School Building Committee
- Module 1 - Eligibility Phase
- Module 2 - Forming the Project Team
- Module 3 - Feasibility Study
- Module 4 - Schematic Design
- Module 5 - Funding the Project
- Module 6 - Detailed Design
- Module 7 - Construction
- Module 8 - Completing the Project
- Educational Planning/Visioning Sessions
Somerset officials support Diman construction study, with a few concerns
By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
SOMERSET — In a spirit of cooperation, with a dose of apprehension, the Board of Selectmen discussed and supported a $1.5 million feasibility study to repair or rebuild aging Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School with school officials Wednesday.
“I think we should move forward with the feasibility study,” Selectman Steven Moniz concluded after considering the process and impacts for an hour with Diman Superintendent Thomas Aubin and Diman School Committee member Donald Dibiasio, representing Somerset.
“I think we should give them the opportunity to research that and the voters have the ultimate decision at a Town Meeting to go forward,” Moniz said, summarizing the board consensus not requiring their specific vote.
Jeffrey Schoonover, superintendent for the Somerset and Somerset Berkley Regional districts, SBR School Committee Chairman Richard Peirce and Town Administrator Richard Brown all weighed in with concerns over this process and impacts.
Competition for students
Moniz and Selectman David Berube said a significant upgrade and expansion for Diman affects the school population.
Moniz linked it with the recently approved $100 million construction of a new Bristol County Agricultural High School and impacts upon their new Somerset Berkley Regional High School.
“With the loss of students, there is a loss of funding. That’s a large concern of ours,” Schoonover said. “We do have concerns for the funding of our schools given the competitive nature high school has become.”
Schoonover said Berkley — which needed to pass a school budget override Monday to pay its share for SBRHS — is affected by the pending feasibility study for sending students to Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical School in Taunton.
Peirce echoed the competition he sees ahead.
He said SBRHS, built just a few years ago with most of its 20-year bond remaining, “will struggle to maintain 1,000 students” and to provide a range of programs with rebuilt area high schools following these feasibility studies.
Brown agreed with Peirce that discussing programming and how it affects funding should be part of the conversation during the feasibility study.
He also wanted to know the process if Somerset chose not to participate and fund the construction because of tax impacts in a town that’s lost revenue from its power plants.
72.3 percent state reimbursement
Aubin summarized that Diman expected to receive 72.3 percent Massachusetts School Building Authority reimbursement, which would put Somerset’s expected funding cost at $53,596 for the study of the 60-year school, equipment and programs.
That’s based on Somerset’s percentage of capital costs being 13 percent with 112 town students attending Diman as of the Oct. 1, 2017, census.
Fall River accounts for two-thirds of Diman’s population and the capital costs, with Swansea (11.2 percent) and Westport (9.75 percent) slightly lower than Somerset.
Diman is looking to increase its 1,400-student population to 1,600 to 1,800 with a new or expanded school, Aubin said.
Conducting the feasibility study does not commit the Diman district to renovating or rebuilding a new high school, Aubin said.
Aubin sees construction completion in approximately five years if the process proceeds.
Dibiasio said the Diman School Committee last month unanimously supported Aubin’s initiative for the feasibility study to begin the process.
In a random Herald News poll that followed that action, among 521 votes cast, two-thirds or 67 percent said Diman should be renovated or replaced and the other one-third said no, there was nothing wrong with the school.
Aubin said beyond overcrowding and having double the 375 new students apply they can accept in a typical year, the 50-year-old building’s needs are physical, functional and program equipment that faces obsolescence with changing job opportunities.
Accepted 28 of 58 Somerset students
Of 58 Somerset students that applied, only 28 could be accepted, Dibiasio said.
Aubin stressed Diman’s success with more than 60,000 graduates.
He urged officials to examine job needs and demographics, like the average age for a farmer and an electrician, in Massachusetts being 57 in each case.
When pressed by Berube on potentially spending hundreds of millions of dollars for a new vocational-technical school, Aubin said evenly, “Diman is not going to go away, and that building is going to have to be redone.”
As of July 2, sender communities would have 60 days to either accept the feasibility application process or take a vote through town meetings or Fall River’s City Council on whether to move ahead.
A 270-day process would begin on that date to provide the MSBA with documents, a capital plan and enrollment projections on which the state would decide what option to fund, Aubin said.
It’s virtually identical to what Somerset voters approved at the annual Town Meeting last month for an $800,000 middle school feasibility study.
Diman and Somerset were among 16 of 83 applications granted feasibility studies in December, Aubin said.
Somerset Selectmen Chairwoman Holly McNamara emphasized the desire for Schoonover and Somerset officials to work cooperatively with Aubin and Diman officials.
Aubin said he saw cooperative student exchanges both ways between Diman and SBRHS. He noted opportunities at SBRHS for their students to study music, art and advanced placement subjects.
McNamara, who had high praise for Diman and its educators after touring the school this spring, said selectmen wanted more details on what the community is paying for and receiving with the feasibility study. That’s why they sought the meeting.
She also cited changing times. “We’re all trying to evolve and adapt, and it’s not easy,” McNamara said.
“Your concerns are our concerns. We look forward to working with everybody,” Aubin told selectman as their meeting wrapped up.
Aubin said he’s scheduled to present the feasibility study process and funding to the City Council in Fall River at its meeting Tuesday night.