Northborough,
Massachusetts
REGIONAL AGREEMENT
Regional Agreement
NORTHBOROUGH-SOUTHBOROUGH
REGIONAL SCHOOL
INTEGRATED
AGREEMENT
SEPTEMBER 2000
AGREEMENT
For a Regional School District for the towns of Northborough and
Southborough, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, hereinafter referred
to as member towns.
Section I.
The
Regional District School Committee
(a) The Regional
District School Committee, hereinafter referred to as the Committee,
shall consist of ten members: five from the town of Northborough and
five from the town of Southborough.
(b) Within ten days
after the establishment of the Regional School District, the local
school committee of each member town shall select from its own
membership the Committee members specified in Section I (a) above.
Such selectees shall serve for the duration of their respective
terms on their local school committee and until their successors are
selected and qualified under Section I (c) below.
(c) The Regional
School Committee members shall be elected at annual Town elections on a
staggered basis. There
shall be five members from each Town, each of whom shall serve a term of
office of three years.
During the initial election after the ratification of this
amendment, the terms of election and terms of office shall be as
follows:
1.
The one candidate from each Town receiving the highest number of
votes as certified by the Town Clerk shall serve a three year term of
office.
2.
The two candidates from each Town receiving the second and third
highest
number of votes as certified by the Town Clerk shall serve two year
terms of office.
3. The
two candidates from each Town receiving the fourth and fifth highest
number of votes as certified by the Town clerk shall serve one year
terms of office.
Upon the completion of the terms of office outlined in paragraphs
1-3 above,
successors of each office shall be elected to a three
year term of office.
(d) The
quorum of the Committee shall be six members.
(e) In the event
that a vacancy occurs on the Committee, the vacancy shall be filled by
an appointment or election by the remaining Regional Committee members
from the affected community.
Section
II.
Location of the Regional District School
(a) The Regional
District school shall be located in Northborough as near as feasible to
the geographical center of the district.
Section III.
Type of Regional School
(a) The Regional
District school shall be a senior high school consisting of grades 9
through 12 inclusive.
(b) The Committee is
hereby authorized to establish and maintain State-aided Vocational
Education, acting as trustees therefor, in accordance with the
provisions of Chapter 74 of the General Laws and amendments thereof or
dependent thereon; if the Committee deems it desirable.
Section IV.
Apportionment and Payment of Costs Incurred by the District
(a)
For the purpose of apportioning assessments levied by the
District against the member towns, costs shall be divided into two
categories: capital costs and operating costs.
(b)
Capital costs shall include all expenditures relating to capital
outlay such as payment of principal and interest on bonds or other
obligations issued by the District, and any other expenses associated
with the acquisition of real estate, the construction and
improvement of buildings, grading, purchase of equipment, and
other activities incident to placing in operation the original school
plant and any subsequent additions and improvements thereto.
(c) Operating costs
shall include all other costs such as salaries, wages, supplies, texts,
repair and maintenance expenditures, interest on notes issued in
anticipation of revenue, and other costs incurred in the day-to-day
operation of the school.
(d) Payment of
initial capital costs shall be apportioned between the member towns as
follows:
Northborough
58.25%
Southborough
41.75%
Payment of future capital costs as determined by
Section IV, Clause (b) shall be apportioned between the member towns
according to student population from each member town attending the
school at the time the debt for any given future capital improvement
shall be contracted. For
the purposes of this Clause, future capital costs shall mean all capital
costs incurred after the general contract for the school is completed
and the school accepted and occupied.
(e) Within
two days after the date on which the Committee authorizes the incurring
of debt, other than temporary debt in anticipation of revenue to be
received from member towns, the Committee shall cause written notice of
the date of said authorization, the sum authorized, and the general
purpose or purposes for authorizing such debt, to be mailed by
registered mail to the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of each member
town at his last known permanent address in such town.
(f) Operating costs
for fiscal years commencing with fiscal year 1995 shall be determined
for, and apportioned to, each member Town by computing the ratio which
that town’s pupil enrollment in the regional district school on
October 1 of the fiscal year or years next preceding the fiscal year for
which the apportionment is made bears to the aggregate total pupil
enrollment in the regional district school from both member towns on the
same date or dates, as follows:
(i)
operating costs for fiscal year 1995 shall be apportioned to the
member
towns
on the basis of their respective pupil enrollments in the regional
district
school on October 1 of the preceding fiscal year;
(ii)
operating costs for fiscal year 1996 shall be apportioned to the
member
towns on the basis of the total of their respective pupil
enrollments
in the regional district school on October 1 of each of the two
preceding
fiscal years;
(iii)
operating costs for fiscal year 1997 shall be apportioned to the
member
towns on the basis of the total of their respective pupil
enrollments
in the regional district school on October 1 of each of the
three
preceding fiscal years; and
(iv)
operating costs for fiscal year 1998 and for each fiscal year
thereafter
shall be apportioned to the member towns on the basis of the
total of their
respective
pupil enrollments in the regional district school on October 1 of
the
four preceding fiscal years.
(g)
Each member town shall pay its proportionate share of the capital
and operating costs to the District each year in four equal installments
not later than the first of March, June, September and December.
Section V.
Transportation
(a) Transportation
to and from the Regional District school and any other transportation
for Regional school purposes shall be the responsibility of the Regional
School District and its cost shall be an ordinary operating expense.
Section VI.
Admission of Additional Towns to the Regional School District
(a) Any town may
petition to become a member town in the District under terms stipulated
in a proposed amendment to the Agreement.
Said petitioning town shall become a member town if the proposed
amendment is approved by the Committee and accepted by the petitioning
town and each member town, and provided further that the petitioning
town shall also accept the Agreement with any amendments thereto.
Approval by the Committee to require a majority vote, and
acceptance by the petitioning town and by the member towns to be by
majority vote at either special or annual town meetings.
(b) Upon admission
of a town to the District, assessments levied against the member towns
by the District to meet capital costs as defined in Section IV (b) shall
be reapportioned, the terms of reapportionment to be stipulated in the
amendment to the Agreement by which the town is admitted to the
District.
(c) The newly
admitted town shall pay to the District its share, as determined in
Section VI (b), of the funded indebtedness already retired.
For the purpose of this calculation such retired indebtedness
shall be considered as the difference between (1) the original plus any
subsequent capital costs, exclusive of interest and the total state
construction grant, depreciated at the rate of 2 per cent per year, and
(2) that part of capital costs as yet unpaid less that part of the state
construction grant not yet received.
Such share shall be paid in equal installments not later than the
twentieth of March, June, September and December in each year during the
remaining period of indebtedness. Payments
thus made shall be credited to the other towns comprising the District
in amounts proportionate to the share of capital costs each has paid in
the past.
(d) If no funded
indebtedness exists, the newly admitted town shall nevertheless assume
liability for its share of past funded indebtedness which shall be
computed in the manner described above in Section VI (c) and paid
directly to the other towns then comprising the District in the
proportion due each, payments to be made in ten equal annual
installments.
Section VII.
Withdrawal of a Town from the Regional School District
(a) Any member town
may petition to withdraw from the District under terms stipulated in a
proposed amendment to the Agreement provided (1) that the town seeking
to withdraw has paid over to the District any operating costs for which
it became liable as a member of the District, and (2) that said town
shall remain liable to the District for its share of the indebtedness of
the District outstanding at the time of such withdrawal, and for
interest thereon, to the same extent and in the same manner as though
the town had not withdrawn from the District, except that such liability
shall be reduced by any amount which such town has paid over at the time
of withdrawal and which has been applied to the payment of such
indebtedness or interest.
(b) Said petitioning
town shall cease to be a member town if the proposed amendment is
approved by the Committee and accepted by the petitioning town and each
of the other member towns, approval by the Committee to require a
majority vote, and acceptance by the petitioning town and by the other
member towns to be by majority vote at an annual or special town
meeting.
(c) Money received
by the District from the withdrawing town for payment of funded
indebtedness or interest thereon shall be used for this purpose only.
Section VIII.
Amendments
(a) This Agreement
may be amended at any time and from time to time, in the manner
hereinafter provided, but no such amendment shall be made which shall
substantially impair the rights of the holders of any bonds or notes or
other indebtedness of the District then outstanding, or the rights of
the District to procure the means for payment thereof, provided that
nothing in this section shall prevent the admission of a new town or
towns to the District and the reapportionment accordingly of that part
of the costs of land acquisition and construction represented by bonds
or notes of the District then outstanding and of interest thereon.
An amendment may be proposed by vote of the Committee or by vote
of any town meeting of any member town.
In the latter case the town clerk shall forthwith deliver a copy
of such vote to the secretary of the Committee.
In either case the secretary shall forthwith deliver a copy of
the vote proposing the amendment to the town clerk of each member town,
and each such town shall vote at its next annual town meeting, or at a
special town meeting called for the purpose, upon the acceptance of such
amendment. Such amendment
shall take effect upon its acceptance by each of the member towns in the
manner hereinabove provided.
Section IX.
Annual Budget and Report
(a) The Committee
shall determine the amounts necessary to be raised to maintain and
operate the Regional School during the ensuing fiscal year, and the
amount required for payment of debt and interest incurred by the
District which shall become
due in said year, and shall prepare and adopt a formal budget
accordingly and submit copies thereof to the Finance Committee or
Advisory Board of the member towns on or before March 1 in each year.
The Committee shall apportion
said budget in accordance with the provisions of Section IV of this
agreement. The amount so apportioned, to the extent permitted by state
law, for each town shall, within thirty (30) days from the date on which
the annual budget is adopted by the Committee, be certified by the
Regional District Treasurer to the Treasurers of the member towns and
each town shall appropriate the amount so certified.
The fiscal year shall run from July 1 through June 30 in each
year.
(b) The
Committee shall annually submit a report to each of the member towns as
provided in Section 16 (k) of chapter 71 of the General Laws.
Section X.
Subcommittees
(a) The Committee
may from time to time create subcommittees, the members of which need
not be members of the Committee, and assign to such subcommittees,
subject to the supervision of the Committee, such advisory functions as
the Committee may determine. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the
Committee may, to assist it in the construction of the Regional school,
appoint a building committee to advise it with respect to plans,
specifications, appointment of architects, engineers, the awarding of
contracts, the supervision of construction, and any other assistance
which the Committee may desire.
Section XI.
Organization
of the Committee
(a) The Committee
may equip and maintain an office at such place within the District as it
may determine.
(b) Within ten days
after the appointment of the initial members, the Committee shall
organize by the selection by ballot from their members a Chairman and by
the appointment of a Secretary and Treasurer who may be the same person
and need not be members of the Committee.
(c) The Committee
may appoint such other officers and agents as it deems advisable.
Provision shall be made for meetings including an annual meeting
at which officers of the Committee shall be elected. The secretary of the Committee shall give three days notice
by mail to all members of the time and place of any Committee meeting.
Section XII.
Tuition Pupils
(a) Students
residing outside the Regional School District may attend the Regional
District school upon approval of the Committee and payment of tuition as
determined by such Committee.
REGIONAL
SCHOOL DISTRICT PLANNING BOARD
/s/ Betty
A. Gray /s/
David W. Aldrich
/s/ John A. Campbell
/s/ C.A.
Breault /s/
George W. Coleman
/s/ Al Bellucci
/s/ Francis
K. Payne /s/
Louie A. Hoisington /s/
Jeanette C. Andrews
Approved
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Department of Education
Emergency Finance Board
/s/
John J. Desmond, Jr.
/s/ Edward S. Zelazo
Commissioner
/s/ George E. Lane
May 11, 1954
/s/ Salvatore E.
Aloisi
/s/ Herman B. Dine
May 13, 1954
A true copy of the Northborough-Southborough Regional
School District Agreement as executed by the Regional School District
Planning Board and approved May 11, 1954 by John J. Desmond, Jr.,
Commissioner of Education, and approved May 13, 1954 by the Emergency
Finance Board.
Attest:
/s/ Janice
B. Parmenter
Secretary
This is to certify that the agreement relating to the
Northborough-Southborough Regional School District was last amended on
April 12, 1994.
Secretary
Date: