The Fall River City Council Tuesday night will have before it a proposal to approve the construction of a new Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School.
The school is required to seek approval from the four communities it serves – Fall River Somerset, Swansea and Westport – to finance the $293 million dollar construction project. Fall River is the lone community yet to weigh in on the project. The city council is the entity in Fall River to decide whether the project should move forward.
The school is receiving over $145 million from the state to pay for constructing the new facility at its Stonehaven Road location. The remaining cost of construction will be borne by the four communities, with Fall River slated to be charged with over 70% of the remaining cost based on it being the largest community in the district with the most students enrolled.
Diman Superintendent/Director Dr. Elvio Ferreira will make a presentation before the city council’s finance committee on the need to replace the over 50-year-old school, citing facility disrepair, overcrowding, and the sizable financial commitment from the state.
I approval is granted its unclear how Fall River would pay for its share of constructing a new Diman. The city is in the midst of paying for a number of new school projects, the largest of which is the new BMC Durfee High School that opened last fall. Voters in 2018 voted to approve a debt exclusion which will allow the city to raise taxes to pay for the new Durfee.
If the city council were to reject the project, the Diman school committee has the option to seek a region-wide referendum vote of residents to move forward. Two weeks ago the school committee voted to accept an extension from the state of the deadline needed for the communities to approve the project. The original deadline for support was April 15. The new deadline is July 15.
Dr. Ferreira says the extension to seek community approval will provide the school enough time to organize a referendum and garner support from local voters if needed.
If there is a region-wide referendum vote Diman would be required to reimburse the communities for the cost of holding that election.
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