Rehoboth Selectmen Consider Options After DESE Letter

The Board of Selectmen expressed their disappointment with the decision by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to establish the Dighton-Rehoboth school budget at $45 million.

DESE assumed fiscal oversight of the district on December 1 due to a budget not being approved by Dighton and Rehoboth.

Chairman Gerry Schwall explained the Board of Selectmen did what they could to resolve the budget turmoil. “We agreed to bring an alternative, a compromise to Town Meeting. We lived up to that obligation,” Schwall said Monday. “We never committed this town to anything.”

Last August, Selectmen had reached a deal with the school committee. In exchange for giving the school department an additional $330,000 for the 2020 budget, selectmen had proposed $214,000 in cuts to town departments. Voters rejected the revised FY20 budget at the October 29 town meeting and the district-wide meeting scheduled for November 2 was cancelled.

Schwall spoke with a member of the Dighton board of selectmen. The topic of whether or not the towns will withdraw from the regional school agreement was discussed. “We have much more in common than we have differences,” Schwall said. “I feel somewhat optimistic however if that does not pan out, then I think there are other actions that we need to take.”

“I am aware this budget may result in a change in assessments to your member towns,” commissioner Jeffrey Riley wrote to the town and school officials on November 29. “Consequently, I expect the district to use any additional state reimbursements to offset such increases and reduce member towns’ assessments in FY2020 proportional to the regional district agreement method for apportioning costs.”

Schwall said the school committee needs to live up to their responsibilities.  “There are certain things in that letter that have to take place,” Schwall noted. “We are waiting until the school committee takes those actions that are specified in that letter. (The board of selectmen) then has time to digest that and decide what course of action to take on behalf of the taxpayers of this town.”