ORANGE — Residents have taken the final step necessary to get grant money to address the needs of its elementary school, voting overwhelmingly on a ballot question Monday to approve a debt exclusion to finance the feasibility study required in order to be eligible for the money.
According to unofficial results, voters cast ballots 366 to 176 in favor of the exclusion, enabling a feasibility study that could reveal the need to rebuild or modernize the Dexter Park School, modernize or add to another school building, build a new school on the Dexter Street site, or build a new school at another site. Following the study, Orange is eligible to receive grant money from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a quasi-independent government authority “created to reform the process of funding capital improvement projects in the Commonwealth’s public schools.”
According to information from the Dexter Park School Building Study Committee, the feasibility study comes with the MSBA’s reimbursement rate of 79.5 percent. The estimated cost is $875,000, with a state share of $695,625 and a town share of $179,375.
The Dexter Park School, at 3 Dexter St. Extension, was constructed in the early 1950s and currently houses grades 3 through 6. According to the Building Study Committee, the first phase of the feasibility study could be completed by September to December 2018 and the conceptual and schematic designs could be developed by 2019. The vote for funding the project could be held in early 2020.
Monday’s voting was held in the Orange Armory, at 141 East Main St., from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. According to Orange Town Clerk Nancy Blackmer, 11 percent of the checklist voted on the ballot question.