Towns send decision back to school committee
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer
Northborough/Southborough - In the matter of the $25 million reimbursement disagreement Northborough and Southborough is having relating to how to correctly distribute the funds, there is one thing about which both towns are unified.

The Regional School Committee should be making the decision about how the reimbursement is to be distributed.

The Southborough selectmen last week agreed to send a letter to the Regional School Committee asking them to decide how to disperse the money.

The Northborough selectmen have yet to make a decision, but they, too, seem to be leaning to send the matter back from where it came.

The two towns became embroiled in the dispute after each offered its understanding on how the money should be distributed - along the line of the Regional Agreement or Chapter 70B - last year only to have the Regional School Committee, after not getting an decision from the state, toss it back into the laps of the tow towns, telling them, seemingly, to work it out.

Northborough officials believe the reimbursement should be completed using the guidelines set forth in Chapter 70B. Southborough thinks the reimbursement model to be used is outlined in the Regional School Agreement. The diff erence in the reimbursement between the two towns is $1.5 million.

The working/negotiating/ communication groups for each town met jointly Oct. 18. Jeff Amberson is the Board of Selectmen representative for the Northborough negotiating team, while Bill Boland is the Board of Selectmen representative for Southborough.

Amberson reported back to the Northborough selectmen at their Oct. 22 meeting that the combined meeting produced lots of ideas, but no clear direction in which to proceed.

"I would like to see the working groups get a legal opinion," Amberson said. "That would, in theory, take the emotion out of it and then we could make a decision on firm legal footing and proceed in clearly in a way that people familiar with a situation like this, recommend to proceed."

Boland told the Southborough Board of Selectmen that, "the only point we agreed upon is that we're not going to agree on this." Boland's recommendation to his board members was for Southborough to send a letter to the Regional School Committee, because, "they are the only people with the authority to make this decision."