To the editor:

On Saturday, those who comprise the Westport Taxpayers Association sent out an unsigned double-sided flyer filled with lies and misinformation to Westport voters living in the 02790 postal code. They sent this to people they thought they could bully into believing that great financial harm would come to them if they support the debt exclusion for a new 5-12 middle high school. They sent it now because they’re hoping that there will not be enough time to rebut their misinformation.

Here are the facts, supported by evidence the School Building Committee has provided in open, public meetings and forums over the past almost 3 years:

This is NOT the Big Dig. We will only pay for our share of the project, $58.8M. The State will pick up $38.1M—40% of our entire project. Every community who builds schools with the MSBA does it this way, and they all get their money. The MSBA has never reneged. If we don’t take advantage of this massive grant now, we will have to pay for a new school on our own, with rising construction costs and interest rates.

The School and Library will not be shut down. This is a blatant lie to scare people. The Library and school will be completely on their own systems during the entire demo and construction of the building. At some point, they will transition onto the new systems with no

disruptions to their operations.

Taxes will not be raised immediately, but over time as we borrow. The cost to taxpayers is $103/yr for every $100, 000 valuation in property. For an average $400,000 home, your taxes will rise $412/yr.

The Town’s operating budget will not increase because of the school. Payment for the school does not come out of the Town’s operating budget. Payment comes from collecting taxes on the bond. It is entirely separate.

The School is built to accommodate 860 students and we will have a full complement of students in September, 2021 when the school opens. It will not be too big nor too small. The MSBA has many statisticians whose job it is to figure this out and come up with the correct size of schools.

We project maintenance costs to decrease by $120k per year and operating costs by $100k per year. We will have tremendous savings in both operating and maintenance costs, having one energy efficient school housing 60% of Westport students.

There is no possibility of regionalization with the Dartmouth schools or any other school in our area. This was explored and rejected. The MSBA would have required Westport to do this if they deemed it feasible, as they have done with other communities such as Somerset.

The Federal Court did not say that the middle school was safe. It said that we could not prove damages because Monsanto did not know that the PCBs in the caulking were unsafe in 1969, when the middle school was built. The EPA said the school was unsafe and unusable for educational purposes unless we rid the school of PCBs greater than 50,000ppm, which were present in several classrooms and other spaces.

Westport is well ahead of other communities in setting up a fund for pensions and other liabilities. Funds to pay for pensions and other liabilities (OPEB) face every town in Massachusetts. Westport has been in the vanguard of those that have chosen to do something about it. In 2013, as a result of Town Meeting vote, Westport established a trust fund of over $1M and has been adding to it since that time. Only about 50% of Massachusetts municipalities had done so at that time.

These are the facts. Go to the School Building Committee website: westportsbc.com for data to support them. Ask questions. Don’t be fooled by lies and misinformation from people who won’t tell you who they are.

Dianne M. Baron,

Chair, Westport School Building Committee