Seekonk to Vote on New Tri-County High School

A special election has been scheduled for October 24 for the voters to decide on funding for Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School.

The $285.9 million project will pay for a new facility for Tri-County. Construction on the current building began in 1974 and ended in 1977.

At the time of construction, there was no cost assessed to the 11-member communities, which include Sherborn, Medfield, Walpole, Millis, Medway, Norfolk, Wrentham, Plainville, Franklin, North Attleboro, and Seekonk.

Tri-County is operating at a capacity of 1000 students, who have chosen one of 16 vocational programs.

The district has carefully maintained the building, but the infrastructure and building systems are now beyond their useful life, according to members of the TCRVTHS Project Team.

The existing deficiencies include wear and tear/failures of major sub systems, plumbing, electrical, and building envelope.

In 2014, a structural review was performed with the purpose of providing professional insight as to the condition of the school building. At that time, it was determined that the cost to repair failing systems with no updates to the building structure would be in excess of $150,000,000.

Many options were studied to solve the existing facility issues, including:
• renovation of the existing building,
• addition and renovation of the existing building,
• a new building and demolition of the existing building.

The building options all cost about the same, but the disruption of a renovation project made less sense to the School Committee, and community than the new building proposal, which was selected as the preferred option.

For taxpayer impact by Town, visit www.tri-countybuilding.com.