From the October 20, 2010 issue of The Cape Cod Times

Brewster Town Hall will be sold to charter school

By Doug Fraser
dfraser@capecodonline.com
October 20, 2009

BREWSTER - Town meeting voters last night overwhelmingly approved a plan that would sell the current town hall to the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School, merge two elementary schools into one and move town offices into the other school.

The plan was hatched last January and moved quickly through meetings with various town committees and boards to meet near-unanimous acclaim from speakers on town meeting floor. Faced with declining school enrollment, Brewster found itself spending much of its increasingly scarce educational funding on empty space in two schools instead of academic programs.

The town has also been saddled with town offices in an aged former school building that needed constant repair work and updating and required office spaces that were cobbled together from classrooms. By selling town offices to the Lighthouse school for $3.3 million, the town helped to finance a major portion of the $2.4 million addition to the Stony Brook school as part of the consolidation, and $900,000 to renovate the Eddy School into town offices, a community center and council on aging.

"We have little opportunity of bringing back programs with the current configuration," said school committee chairman John O'Reilly. "This is a great opportunity to bring the kids together with greater flexibility in programs and budgets.

Recently retired Nauset Regional School Supt. Michael Gradone and new Supt. Richard Hoffman spoke in favor of the plan.

"If Brewster does not act now, we won't have another chance," said finance committee chairman Don Schober.

"In your hearts you know this is right," he told the 632 voters in attendance.

Town Administrator Charles Sumner also laid out the risk. Negotiations are ongoing with the state on its threat to stop $545,000 a year, $2.7 million total, in reimbursements for the construction of the Eddy school. Those funds were contingent on the building being used as a school. The town is hoping it can put together an educational program for the building that will satisfy that requirement.

If the state balks at continuing to reimburse the town, Sumner said the expense of paying off over $2 million in debt payments would add $50 to the property taxes of a home valued at $400,000.

The town has already selected a construction firm, and work on the new addition could start as soon as Nov. 19, with a tentative completion date of next October. Under that schedule, the Lighthouse school could move to its first permanent home by August 2011.

Other articles that passed last night included: Two local option taxes, a less-than-1-percent increase to the meals tax, expected to raise $100,000 a year for the town; and a 2-percent increase in the room tax that proponents believe will bring in another $290,000.

Voters also approved a suite of articles intended to get municipal wind turbines up and running. One article authorized selectmen to enter into negotiations with Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative for a long-term lease agreement in which the town would be paid a minimum of $100,000 a year for two turbines plus discounted electricity. The cooperative would fund the purchase and construction of the turbines.

Town meeting concluded last night.