To the Editor:
The Nashoba Valley Technical High School Committee, at its meeting of July 17, 2012, voted unanimously to transfer $200,000 from the district’s Excess & Deficiency Account and place it into the recently created Stabilization Fund to pay for future capital expenses. The Stabilization Fund was approved by a majority of our district municipalities as a means of transferring money to cover both major planned and unexpected expenses, and to avoid the need for further borrowing by our member towns.
The $200,000 the Committee agreed to transfer into the Stabilization Fund brings the total amount in the fund to $450,000. It is our hope that this money, in addition to the buy-in monies from Ayer, will help us build a track-and-field facility for our ever-increasing student population. Ayer was accepted into the NVTHS district earlier this year at Town Meetings in all of our member municipalities.
The Massachusetts Legislature approved the Municipal Relief Act of 2010 to give regional school districts more control over expenditures from stabilization funds by requiring a two-thirds vote of the district’s school committee to allocate those funds for such purposes as:
- Acquiring land and constructing, reconstructing, adding to and equipping a school building.
- Remodeling and making extraordinary repairs to a school building.
- Constructing sewerage systems and sewerage treatment and disposal facilities, or purchasing the use of such systems with municipalities.
- Purchasing departmental equipment.
- Constructing, reconstructing or making improvements to outdoor playground, athletic or recreational facilities or roadways and parking lots.
- Any other public work or improvement of a permanent nature.
- Planning, architectural or engineering costs relating to any of the above purposes.
The benefit for the Nashoba Valley Technical High School District is that it can use its own district reserve monies from the Stabilization Fund on educational projects the district deems appropriate. The greatest advantage to our district member towns is that this will require no additional borrowing for these capital projects.
The School Committee and I once again deeply appreciate the continued support of our member towns — Ayer, Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend and Westford — and we again thank the citizens of these communities for their continued generosity and support for the Nashoba Valley Technical High School District and what we do for the children of the district.
Sincerely,
Dr. Judith L. Klimkiewicz
Superintendent
Nashoba Valley Technical High School District
