Rehoboth Lawsuit Update

On July 27, 2023, the Town of Rehoboth indicated that they wish to resume the litigation process in the matter that they filed on September 13, 2021. This 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 (“Agreement”). The District’s position, which has been endorsed by the Bristol County Superior Court in a June 17, 2022 ruling, is that the District can only negotiate the litigation because the Towns of Dighton and Rehoboth have the sole authority to negotiate changes to the Agreement and then any proposed changes must be voted on and approved at various levels, including by the citizens of Dighton and Rehoboth. The District, therefore, took the position that amendments to the Agreement should not and cannot be a part of a settlement of the civil court case.

“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,” stated Superintendent Bill Runey. He went on to offer 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.” The litigation has been on hiatus for approximately 6 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