Bill for vocational students tops Town Meeting warrant

FREETOWN — Articles that will pave the way for repair of the Elm Street Bridge, establish an elementary school tutoring program and help support needy veterans and their families will be discussed at the special Town Meeting Monday.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Freetown Elementary School.

Perhaps the biggest concern, however, will be how the town has to come up with an additional $275,860 to send students to vocational school — a move that will virtually empty the town's stabilization account.

Selectmen recently learned that more than 100 students from Freetown are attending Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School, an unexpected jump from the 70 students for which the town budgeted in the spring.

"There is a need for a future mechanism for the region to reimburse the town for students that they are not educating," said William J. Lombardi, chairman of the Finance Committee. "Although we are obligated to pay this tuition and the Finance Committee recommends this article, it is another example of the inadequacy of the school system that will not be rectified by regionalization. The region needs to do a better job of educating their students on the benefits of Apponequet Regional High School. The region's lack of preparedness in this area is costing the towns hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Lombardi added that, between the Old Colony article and others with lesser amounts, the town will have just $15,000 to handle unexpected expenses.

The state, said Lombardi, recommends the town set aside $1 million, or 5 percent, of its total budget in stabilization.

School Superintendent John E. McCarthy was unavailable for comment but, during last week's Freetown School Committee meeting, there was a lengthy discussion on how Apponequet needs to actively show eighth-graders what the school has to offer.

Another school-related article is a request to establish a revolving account to provide MCAS tutoring to elementary school students that would require parents to pay a fee.

"The tutorial is a program that we've had for a number of years and then was cut due to the budget. It is no coincidence that our MCAS scores were down the year we did not have the program," said Robert L. Frizelle, principal of Freetown Elementary School.

According to Frizelle, there would be no financial impact on the town and the account is just a mechanism for teachers to get paid.

The Finance Committee does not recommend this article, said Lombardi, because it would "create another revolving account which is a cost burden on town administration" and contains vague wording.

The school committee has also requested an additional $139,730 for out-of-district special education costs.

Aside from the schools, there is an article on the warrant requesting $57,500 to support needy veterans and their families, a sum the state will partially reimburse at a later date.

Both the Finance Committee and the selectmen agreed that departmental budgets could not be supplemented aside form mandated disbursements.

Selectmen Chairwoman Jean C. Fox said that, although the town is under tremendous financial constraints, there are good things on the horizon.

Officials have been engaged in serious discussion concerning regionalization of services, according to Fox, and the Elm Street Bridge renovation project is in its final phase of design and has a good chance of being funded by the state.

"We are operating on a shoestring, and there is some level of frustration with the continued revenue shortfalls and constant belt tightening. But there is something about Freetown that always surfaces in tumultuous times — it is our spirit of community," Fox said. "We are seeing more neighbors helping neighbors; more efforts on the part of the community-based organizations and church groups to reach out to those in need; more commitment on the part of town employees to do their best job for residents with significantly less; more determination to ride out the storm."