MARLBOROUGH – The Assabet Valley Regional Vocational District is seeking another, more reliable way to pay for its capital projects.
Longtime sources such as grants and out-of-district tuitions have become less consistent, according to Superintendent Ernest Houle.
That is especially the case with out-of-district tuitions. Houle said the school has fewer spaces available for students outside of Assabet’s district.
Houle recalled that when he first became superintendent in 2015, there would be about 165 in-district spaces, with the remainder offered to out-of-district students.
That is no longer the case, he said.
A chart of Assabet’s enrollment changes shows that the ninth-grade enrollment is all in-district – not one student from communities that used to send students to Assabet, like Shrewsbury and Clinton.
For the current grade 10, the number of out-of-district students is 18; for grade 11, it’s 48; for grade 12, it’s 66.
For fiscal 2025, Marlborough would have 55 more students enrolled in Assabet than in fiscal 2024, while Westborough will have nine more; Northborough and Southborough will have three more students each.
In the past, out-of-district tuitions have helped pay for projects like the turf field. Now that out-of-district tuition is declining, Assabet is pushing to establish a capital stabilization fund.
Should Assabet receive approval from five out of its seven member communities, the district would be allowed, starting in fiscal 2026, to set aside $250,000 from member assessments for capital improvement projects.
On Monday, Feb. 12, Houle went before Westborough’s Advisory Finance Committee to discuss the proposed fund, which is an article in that town’s Town Meeting warrant.
Paul L. George, Westborough’s representative on the School Committee, said that most of the school’s capital projects cannot be done in “three budget cycles,” let alone one.
To him, the stabilization fund “makes a lot of sense.”
Houle said that the district is setting up a schedule for capital projects, including an upgrade of its phone system, the parking lots and upgrades to the auditorium.
The Advisory Finance Committee voted 8-0 to recommend that Town Meeting approve the stabilization fund.
A look at Assabet’s budget for 2025
The district’s projected budget for the 2025 fiscal year is $27,425,514, about $2.2 million above the budget for fiscal 2024. About $16.5 million is slated for instruction, including teacher salaries; about $2.5 million is for operation and maintenance; and $1.7 million would be for short- and long-term debt.
The 2025 fiscal year budget is now available on the budget page of Assabet Valley’s website, https://www.assabet.org/index.html.
