By Alice Waugh
Boxborough and Weston voted last week to withdraw from the Minuteman High School district, whittling the final number of member towns from 16 to 10. The other towns that voted to withdraw are Lincoln, which voted on February 23; Carlisle, Sudbury and Wayland.
All 16 towns approved Minuteman’s revised regional agreement, which will take effect on July 1, 2017. As of that date, Lincoln and the other towns that withdrew will no longer have a seat on the Minuteman School Committee, but they are also not liable for debt service on the new school building (except for per-student fees they may pay as out-of-district towns).
“I’m sad to see some towns leave because the access that students have to high-quality career and technical education will be different going forward,” Minuteman Superintendent-Director Ed Bouquillon said. “On the other hand, I’m proud and pleased that after six years of attempting to revise the regional agreement, it’s a new day,” pending final approval from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, he added.
Minuteman is seeing a one-year increase of 22 percent in applications for 2016-17 from the 16 original member towns, Bouquillon said on Monday. The school had projected an increase of 8-9 percent, “which no one at town meetings believed,” he said. Future enrollment projections will depend on how many students are accepted and enrolled as of October 1, 2016, he added.
Some Lincoln residents at the February 23 Special Town Meeting expressed concern that Minuteman could reach its capacity some time after the new building opens. If that happens, applicants from Lincoln and the other towns that recently opted out will no longer have preference in admission over applicants from in-district towns.
Other towns such as Watertown and Everett have expressed interest in joining the Minuteman district, Bouquillon noted at the Special Town Meeting. However, if they did so, it wouldn’t have an immediate impact on overall enrollment because those towns already send students to the school as out-of-district students, he said.
Minuteman also announced on Monday that it had received a $500,000 state grant to launch a new Advanced Manufacturing and Metal Fabrication program. The money will be used to purchase 10 industry-standard machines and 15 ancillary training simulators including five mini mills, four CNC (computer numerical controlled) tool room lathes and one CNC lathe with Y axis.
The school will be ordering and installing equipment and designing the new program over the next several months and hopes to have initial course offerings in the fall. Advanced Manufacturing will be part of the new school’s Engineering, Construction and Trades Academy.