Rehoboth Lawsuit Against D-R School District to Continue

The lawsuit filed by the Town of Rehoboth against the Dighton Rehoboth Regional School District and the School Committee will not be resolved until 2024.According to Superintendent Bill Runey, the case was about to enter the discovery stage when the parties agreed in December 2022 that they would attempt to mediate the issues presented in the litigation.

The Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee and District indicated that they would be amenable to mediating all issues addressed in each count of the litigation. The Town of Rehoboth’s position was that they wished to mediate issues raised in litigation as well as issues that they currently have with the Amended Regional Agreement. However, it now appears those discussions have broken down and both parties are back to square one. Eric Brainsky, the attorney for the Town of Rehoboth, declined to comment when contacted by the Reporter Thursday.

The lawsuit, which was filed in September 2021, alleges the Regional School District and School Committee violated the terms of its regional agreement with the Town by undertaking and funding capital projects without the approval of Town Meeting, committed fraud, and breached their fiduciary obligations owed to the citizens and taxpayers of Rehoboth.

The lawsuit centers on two capital projects costing $15 million which had resulted in the purchase and installation of solar arrays and heating and air conditioning in and on the grounds of various schools operated by the district. “These projects were approved by the School Committee and, in direct violation of the Regional Agreement and State Law, were funded as part of the Regional School District's operating budgets without Town Meeting approval,” the lawsuit noted.

“Because the capital expenses were incorporated into the District's operating budget instead of being apportioned to both towns as stated in the Regional Agreement and the Massachusetts General Laws, the town of Rehoboth has been unknowingly paying for a portion of the costs for capital projects located in Dighton's elementary and middle schools since 2016-2017.” As a remedy, the suit seeks to dissolve the Regional Agreement, as well as all damages provable at trial. 

“I’m truly disappointed that we couldn’t agree to the scope of the mediation as I was hopeful that this would save both money and time,” Runey said Wednesday. He added that “the task force that I assembled in the fall successfully navigated changes to the Regional Agreement. We remain committed to using that process should the leaders in the Town of Rehoboth be willing. This would be more cost effective than the time we will need to devote to the discovery phase and subsequent legal proceedings.”

“It is unfortunate that we were unable to come to an agreement on a framework for mediation to resolve this matter out of court as it will continue to divert valuable time and resources away from the mission of the District,” added School Committee Chairman Aaron Morse. “Nonetheless, we will continue to work with both towns in an efficient and responsible manner to address the needs of the D-R community as we have throughout this litigation process.”

Runey noted the litigation “has been on hiatus for approximately six months and will now shift to the discovery stage. It is anticipated that discovery will be completed sometime early in 2024 and at that time, each side will file motions to resolve the case or narrow the issues further.”