Idea #177 – Withdraw from the Minuteman District

Report Status: Fully Reviewed

Researched by: Aaron Pikcilingis

Original Idea as Submitted

Withdraw from the Minuteman regional school district

Other ideas included in this report

  • None

Idea intent

Assessing this idea as written – there are other ideas in the list (see #373) about exploring opportunities for and providing vocational education options to residents. This report does, however, include brief context and recommendations around addressing a shortage of vocational/technical education “slots” for Belmont students.

Weighted Final Score: N/A (already implemented)

Background Information

Until recently, Belmont was a member of the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School District. Historically, member towns paid a higher cost per student and bore the cost of additional capital expenditures. The main benefit of being a member was priority placement for a finite number of spots for students in the district, but in the school’s history prior to the 2020-2021 academic year, there were [x] years of full enrollment, so this benefit was rarely realized.

Belmont Leaves the Minuteman District: Minuteman was rebuilt and opened in the 2020-21 academic year. Prior to the start of design and construction, the discussion around the appropriate size and scope of the new school resulted in a change to the charter at which time a number of towns left. Seven other member towns left the regional district effective 2017.

Via town referendum of the new Minuteman Regional District construction which Belmont voters rejected, Town Meeting was able to take up an article to leave the district, which passed at a Special Town Meeting on 10/19/2016 by a margin of 172 to 68, meeting the ⅔ threshold required.

A subsequent reconsideration was also taken up by Town Meeting which failed. As a result of these actions, Belmont officially left the regional district as of July 1, 2020.

If, in the future, Belmont decides to rejoin there will be a cost – “catch up” payments for capital expenditures.

Current State: The 2020-21 academic school year was the first year in which Belmont students who wanted to attend Minuteman were not able to. Of eight students who applied at Minuteman, only 1 was accepted. The schools have also been working with other districts, including the Medford Vocational Technical School, where five Belmont students are enrolled, and the Cambridge Rindge School of Technical Arts.

For more information about alternative options, see Idea #373: Explore Career Vocational and Technical Education Options.

Recommendations

  • Implementation of this idea has been completed.

Next Steps

  • None

Further Reading