City Has Little Legal Recourse Over Paying for New Vocational Building

The city does not currently have a viable legal case against the onerous debt payment it faces associated with the building of a new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational Technical High School, according to City Manager Thomas Ambrosino.

Ambrosino recently addressed the issue following a motion by City Councillors Judith Garcia, Tanairi Garcia, Melinda Vega Maldonado, and Norieliz De Jesus asking him to look at legal measures to reduce the cost of construction, make the debt service more equitable among the member communities, and to improve the admissions process.

In January, Chelsea officials backed a no vote on a districtwide election on the funding of the new $317 million vocational high school in Wakefield. The city officials stated that the funding formula put too great a burden of the construction costs on Chelsea residents and taxpayers, but districtwide, the building project passed with wide support.

“It is my opinion, and the opinion of the City Solicitor, that the city does not have any viable legal case at the moment, and we strongly recommend against legal proceedings,” stated Ambrosino in a letter to the council.

Regarding the cost of the school and Chelsea’s share of the cost, Ambrosino stated that state statute and the agreement with the 12-member vocational district precludes any legal effort to dispute those figures.

“Specifically, the District followed to the letter the statutory process of incurring debt for the purpose of constructing a new school,” Ambrosino stated. 

Further, he stated that the way the capital debt is shared across the district, proportionally based solely on enrollment, is set out explicitly in the inter-municipal agreement that established the school district more than 50 years ago. Only Revere has more students enrolled in the school than Chelsea.

As for the admissions process, Ambrosino said that is within the purview of the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

“Last summer, DESE did change its regulations governing the admissions policies of all vocational-technical schools and required that each school develop new admissions policies that promote equitable access,” Ambrosino stated. 

DESE has publicly committed to closely monitoring the changes during the current school year and has threatened to intervene in cases of non-compliance, including requiring a lottery for admission if a vocational-technical school has not improved upon equity in admissions, according to Ambrosino.

“Although the City of Chelsea could step ahead of DESE, file a lawsuit and seek to prove that the admissions policy of Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School District violates certain federal and/or state civil rights laws, notwithstanding the fact that DESE has found no such violations as of yet, both the Solicitor and I believe that such action is not prudent at the present time,” Ambrosino stated.

He said the better approach is to allow DESE to continue its monitoring and oversight of the situation. Ambrosino said the city could pursue legal action if it believed DESE’s efforts have been ineffective and Chelsea students have been denied admission due to an unfair process.

Ambrosino said that the city does have an avenue to withdraw from the district, but also advised against taking that approach.

“If Chelsea withdraws now from the district, we still need to find an alternative option for our students seeking vocational-technical training,” Ambrosino stated. “Undoubtedly, we would secure a less expensive alternative than the Northeast Metropolitan Vocational School District with its costly new building. But, it will also mean that our residents choosing this vocational option for their children will be sending them to some significantly lesser facility with fewer programming options.”

Overall, Ambrosino said the city would be best served by finding a creative financial solution to absorb the annual debt payments for the new building.

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