Andrew Moniz
In late December, the New Bedford Public Schools proposed an investment of $1 billion over the next 15 years to completely overhaul the district’s elementary schools and potentially renovate or replace the high school. These are necessary steps for the New Bedford Public Schools, as the district has seven elementary schools that have reached centenarian status, in addition to a nearly 50-year-old high school.
Although New Bedford Public Schools is much larger in terms of student population, something similar is going on here in the Dartmouth Public Schools on a smaller scale. Signs of this first surfaced at a school committee meeting in January 2023 when school officials announced, among other major projects, the district was in need of a new school. At first, the subject of this discussion was the development of a new middle school, as the current one is nearly 70 years old. However, in the two years since, the school committee and school officials have considered several other alternative ideas. Some of these propositions include prioritizing the renovation or replacement of the district’s aging elementary schools and even the building of a new high school.
Most recently, at a school committee meeting earlier last month, a draft of the capital improvement plan for the fiscal year 2026 was read. The plan included a variety of projects, which ranged from requests such as replacing the outdoor track at the high school to seeking funds for security upgrades at all the schools. In addition to the items for the upcoming year, the school committee also highlighted several major projects the district hopes to undertake over the course of the 10-year life of the plan.
One of those projects, which is set to be approved as soon as the fiscal year 2027, is a new or renovated school. In addition, it was also revealed a second new or renovated school was an item listed to be approved at the end of the plan in the fiscal year 2035. However, one caveat was placed on these line items. In particular, the one coming up sooner in the fiscal year 2027. That is, as a district, the Dartmouth Public Schools cannot decide independently what schools will be built or renovated. Ultimately this decision is up to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which is a state organization that works with towns and cities on funding for school building projects. Due to this, all of the various ideas surrounding which school should be built are simply speculation. Nevertheless, just as New Bedford has developed a thoughtful and comprehensive improvement plan to replace their infrastructure, Dartmouth must do the same.
Dartmouth must do this because, as those who have lived in town for some time know all too well, building a school is a lengthy and unpredictable process. This definitely was the case during the last school building project. In the midst of building a new high school, the school department faced a costly legal challenge that led to budget cuts for the project. However, as I have learned through my own experiences, the full story on this subject is clouded, which is a major issue if we hope not to repeat the past. I firmly believe that in order not to repeat the past, we must all understand the legal challenge that took place, and only then can we move forward with a thoughtful, comprehensive plan as New Bedford has done.
Growing up in Dartmouth, I have heard bits and pieces of this very story that shrouded the development of the high school. In general, most of these comments alluded to the fact that the footprint of the high school had to be cut down in size during the building phase of the project. But when I inquired about a reason for this, I got a different answer depending on whom I was talking to. Some of the people in the community I heard from would say the school department lost a lawsuit, while others told me that members of the community at the time did not want to fork over more money when construction costs increased. Overall, my takeaway was that the details of this were hazy and unclear to most people.
It seems the 22 years since the completion of the high school have blurred the details of the events that surrounded the construction of the building. Both of the reasons above are not entirely factual, though the truth does lie somewhere in between. The real story begins with a Dartmouth-based group called Citizens for Responsible Decisions. This group accused the town and school department of illegally amending wetland protections and not consulting community feedback when necessary. School and town officials denied these allegations, and ultimately the courts did side with the school. However, this legal victory did not come without a heavy cost. According to a Standard Times article from February of 2000, every day the $38.5 million project sat in limbo awaiting the litigation process to resolve, the school department lost an estimated $6,000.
This ultimately led to the school committee having to make tough decisions in order to make up the nearly $3 million lost and attempt to keep the project on budget. Consequently, cuts to the overall facility, such as the exclusion of a pool and cutting down the size of the auditorium, were necessary.
While this may seem as though it was an insignificant moment in time, this legal battle and the financial struggles that followed had long-lasting effects. Today, our school has fewer opportunities than we would have had if this did not happen. Although our skillful educators and administrators have made do with what the school facilities have to offer, it could have been better if this were avoided.
As Dartmouth considers building another school—whatever type of school that may be—the community, school department, and town government must come together to produce an outcome that will serve our community best. Many towns and cities do not get chances at redemption so soon as Dartmouth has. In some cases, a school is built, and another one may not come for many decades. As a result, this opportunity Dartmouth has must not be wasted.
Nothing is perfect, and things will go wrong; this is inevitable. However, as the school department looks into building another school, they also must use this experience from the past to inform the future. This is imperative because without learning from our mistakes, in 20-30 years we could be right back in the same place we are today, with a school that does not maximize its service to the students. And this time, this situation could be more permanent.