After Grant Fails, Towns To Seek Funds For Elementary Study

BREWSTER – Town officials hope that other Nauset Regional School District towns will contribute to a study of the district’s elementary schools after a request for a state grant was turned down.

A $200,000 efficiency and regionalization grant application that Brewster, Orleans, Eastham and Wellfleet sought to help map out the future of elementary schools in each of the towns was not funded, Brewster Town Manager Peter Lombardi reported to the select board Monday.

Brewster will ask voters at the May 11 annual town meeting to use $100,000 in free cash to contribute to the study. Lombardi said Orleans has tentatively agreed to contribute $50,000 with a hoped-for $25,000 each coming from Eastham and Wellfleet. If the funds are all approved, the towns can move forward with the study as planned.

Each town operates its own elementary school within the Nauset district, and all are experiencing enrollment declines. Some also face expensive repairs and renovations.

“We’re all having the same challenges around managing expenses, declining enrollment, potential capital costs,” Lombardi said. The grant program was very competitive, with eight applications for some $600,000. He said he was worried about waiting another year for the next grant round. “We don’t know what the state budget will look like [next year],” he said.

Brewster has two of the district’s five elementary schools, the Stony Brook School with preschool through grade two, and the Eddy School with grades three to five. Each of the other towns have one elementary school each. According to the grant application, total elementary school enrollment in the district has dropped from more than 1,400 in 2000 to 850 students today. Student enrollment in the regional middle school in Orleans is also down from about 800 to 500; Lombardi recommended including the middle school in the assessment as its future could impact possible scenarios for the elementary schools.

A major impetus of the study is upgrades needed in some of the schools, including Orleans Elementary School, which could face up to $44 million in repairs, according to the grant narrative, and the Stony Brook School, which needs $13 million in improvements to its roof and HVAC system. The study, referred to as a “pre-feasibility study,” will gather data on the five schools, including a comprehensive physical and education assessment to inform short- and long-term facility and space planning as well as looking at the adequacy of the existing facilities and their capital needs. It will “broadly” examine the benefits and challenges of some type of consolidation and/or regionalization of the five schools, according to the grant narrative.

The $200,000 being sought should be sufficient to pay for a consultant to accomplish the tasks layed out in the grant proposal, Lombardi said. The study is more about gathering data and seeing if the towns are all on the same page than making decisions about the future; if there are recommendations that seem promising, additional study would be needed to do a deeper dive, he said.

“We’re going in with no preconceived outcome,” he said.

The select board unanimously backed seeking the funds at town meeting.

“I think there’s been momentum on this issue and it would be foolish to wait for what would be possible state funds,” said board member David Whitney.