Agreement for a regional school district for the Towns of Brewster, Eastham, Orleans and Wellfleet, Massachusetts (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the member towns), such district to be called "Nauset Regional School District."
[Amended 5-9-1994 ATM, Art. 33; 10-28-2002 STM, Art. 4]
A. 
Number of Members. The Regional School District Committee, hereinafter referred to as the Committee, beginning with the annual town elections of 2003, shall consist of ten members, four from the Town of Brewster, three from Orleans, two from Eastham and one from Wellfleet. To achieve proportional representation on the Committee, effective following the annual elections of 2003, the members from Brewster, Eastham and Wellfleet shall have one vote per member, and the members from Orleans .8 (8/10) votes per member. All ten members shall be elected by their individual towns, as prescribed in Paragraph B. below.
B. 
Election of Members. The Nauset Regional School District shall consist of four member towns, each of which shall elect representatives to serve for three-year terms as described above; provided, however, that any member elected prior to 2001 shall serve for a three-year term.
At the annual town elections in 2002, Brewster and Orleans shall elect one member each for terms of three years. At the 2003 elections, Brewster, Eastham, and Orleans shall elect one member each, for terms of three years. At the 2004 elections, Brewster shall elect two members, and Eastham, Orleans and Wellfleet one member each, for terms of three years. The terms of all such elected members shall commence on the day following their election and continue for the terms for which they are elected and thereafter until their successors are elected and qualified. Thereafter, at every succeeding annual and special town election when a member town is required to elect a member, each town shall elect such member to serve on the Committee for a term of three years commencing on the day following such elections.
C. 
Holding office/vacancies. Each member shall hold office during this term and thereafter until the appointment, or election and qualifications of his successor. If a vacancy exists, the Selectmen of the member town or towns of the district involved shall appoint a member to serve until the next annual or special election and at such election, a successor to serve for the unexpired term, if any, shall be elected.
D. 
Officers of the Committee. Annually upon the election or appointment and qualification of its members, the Committee shall organize and choose by ballot a Chairman and a Vice Chairman from its own membership. At the same meeting or at any other meeting, the Committee shall appoint a Treasurer and Secretary who may be the same person but who need not be members of the Committee, choose such other officers as it deems advisable, determine the terms of office of its officers (except the Chairman and Vice Chairman, who shall be elected annually as provided above) and prescribe the powers and duties of any of its officers, fix the time and place for its regular meetings and provide for the calling of special meetings.
The regional district schools shall consist of facilities to serve the needs of grades six (6) through twelve (12).
The Committee is hereby authorized to establish and maintain state-aided vocational education, acting as trustees therefor, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 74 of the General Laws and Acts amendatory thereto or dependent thereon, if the Committee deems it desirable.
A. 
For the purpose of apportioning assessments levied by the district against the member towns, costs shall be divided into two (2) categories: capital costs and operating costs.
B. 
Capital costs shall include all expenses in the nature of capital outlay, such as the cost of acquiring land, the cost of constructing, reconstructing and adding to buildings and the cost of remodeling or making extraordinary repairs to a school building or buildings, including without limitation the cost of the original equipment and furnishings for such buildings or additions, plans, architects' or consultants' fees, costs of sewage treatment or disposal, grading and other items incidental to placing school buildings and additions and related premises in operating condition and any other costs (whether or not so financed) which the district is or may be authorized by statute to finance by the issuance of bonds. Capital costs shall also include payment of principal and interest on bonds or other obligations issued by the district to finance the foregoing costs. Capital costs represented by debt service shall be apportioned as capital costs of the year in which the debt service falls due.
C. 
Operating costs shall include all costs not included in capital costs as defined in Section IV(B) but including interest on temporary notes issued by the districts in anticipation of revenue.
D. 
Payment of all capital costs in any fiscal year shall be apportioned among the member towns on the basis of their respective enrollments in the regional district schools on October 1 of the preceding fiscal year.
E. 
Operating expenses of each fiscal year shall be apportioned to the member towns on the basis of their respective enrollments in the regional district schools on October 1 of the preceding fiscal year.
F. 
Each member town shall pay its proportionate share of the capital and operating expenses to the regional school district in each fiscal year in four (4) equal installments, not later than the first days of September, December, March and June.
Transportation of all pupils to and from the regional district schools shall be furnished by the regional school district and the cost thereof shall be apportioned among the member towns as an operating expense.
By an amendment of this agreement adopted under and in accordance with Section VIII below, any other town or towns may be admitted to the regional school district upon adoption as herein provided of such amendment and upon acceptance by the town or towns seeking admission of the agreement as so amended and also upon compliance with such provisions of law as may be applicable and such terms as may be set forth in such amendment.
A. 
Any member town may petition to withdraw from the regional school district under terms stipulated in a proposed amendment to the agreement, provided (1) that the town seeking to withdraw shall remain liable for any unpaid operating costs which have been certified by the District Treasurer to the treasurer of the withdrawing town, including the full amount so certified for the year in which such withdrawal takes effect, and (2) that said town shall remain liable to the district for its share of the indebtedness, other than temporary indebtedness incurred in anticipation of revenue, of the district outstanding at the time of such withdrawal, and for interest thereon, to the same extent and in the same manner as though the town had not withdrawn from the district, except that (i) where any portion of such liability is computed on the basis of pupil enrollment, such portion shall be assessed as if the withdrawing town had the same pupil enrollment in each grade each year as it had on the October 1 preceding its withdrawal, and (ii) such liability shall be reduced by any amount which such town has paid over at the time of withdrawal and which has been applied to the payment of such indebtedness or interest.
B. 
Said petitioning town shall cease to be a member town if the proposed amendment is approved by the Committee and accepted by the petitioning town and each of the other member towns, acceptance by the petitioning town and by the other member towns to be by majority vote at an Annual or Special Town Meeting.
C. 
Money received by the district from the withdrawing town for payment of funded indebtedness or interest thereon shall be used for this purpose only, and until so used shall be deposited in trust in the name of the district with a bank or trust company having its principal office in Massachusetts having a combined capital and surplus of not less than five million dollars ($5,000,000.).
D. 
Upon the effective date of withdrawal the terms of office of all members serving on the Committee from the withdrawing town shall terminate and the total membership of the Committee, as provided in Section IA, shall be decreased accordingly.
This agreement may be amended from time to time in the manner hereinafter provided, but no such amendment shall be made which shall substantially impair the rights of the holders of any bonds or notes or other indebtedness of the district then outstanding, or the rights of the district to procure the means for payment thereof, provided that nothing in this section shall prevent the admission of a new town or towns to the district and the reapportionment accordingly of capital costs of the district then outstanding and of interest thereon. A proposal for amendment may be initiated by a signed petition bearing the signatures of ten percent (10%) of the registered voters of any one (1) of the member towns or by a majority of all the members of the regional district school committee. Any such proposal for amendment shall be presented to the Secretary of the Committee, who shall mail or deliver a notice, in writing, to the Board of Selectmen of each of the member towns that a proposal to amend this agreement has been received and shall enclose a copy of such proposal (without the signatures in the case of a proposal by petition). The Selectmen in each member town shall include in the warrant for the next Annual or a Special Town Meeting called for the purpose, an article stating the proposal or the substance thereof. Such amendment shall take effect upon its acceptance by each member town, in the manner hereinabove provided.
The Committee shall determine the amounts necessary to be raised to maintain and operate the regional schools during the ensuing fiscal year and the amount required for payment of debt and interest incurred by the District, which will be due in said year, and shall adopt an annual maintenance and operating budget for said year. The Committee shall then submit copies to the Finance or Advisory Committee of each member town or, if there is no Finance or Advisory Committee in a member town, to the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of such town, for their consideration at least forty-five (45) days prior to the earliest business session of any member's Annual Town Meeting. The Committee shall apportion the annual budget in accordance with the provisions of Section IV. The amount so apportioned for each town shall be certified in accordance with M.G.L. c. 71, § 16B by the District Treasurer to the Treasurers of the member towns, and each town shall appropriate the amounts so certified.
[1]
Note: Orleans Town Charter requires submission one hundred fifty (150) days prior to Annual Town Meeting. See Charter Ch. 8, § 2.
The Committee may accept for enrollment in the regional district school pupils from towns other than the member towns on a tuition basis and on such terms as it may determine.