KINGSTON — With its middle and high schools now more than 20 years old, the Silver Lake Regional School District — which serves Kingston, Plympton and Halifax — is facing an estimated $50 million in repairs over the next decade, according to School Committee member Jason Fraser.
Fraser has proposed incorporating funding for some of those repairs into the district’s annual budget. The bonds used to finance construction of the two schools — similar to mortgages — are set to be paid off, with one ending this year and the other next year. Fraser’s proposal would redirect the funds previously used to pay off the bonds into the Silver Lake Stabilization Fund, which covers building maintenance and repairs. This will keep capital dollars dedicated to capital needs, while shifting their use from debt repayment to long-term upkeep of the facilities.
Fraser said that $700,000 of exempt capital will roll off of the mortgage for the two schools in fiscal year 2027, and that $600,000 will roll off the next year. According to his proposal, the three towns would add that total $700,000 to the stabilization fund this year and a combined $1.3 million each following year.
The Select Board showed its unanimous support for the plan. The finance committees and Select Boards of Kingston, Plympton and Halifax would have to approve apportioning the funds into the Silver Lake Stabilization Fund each year, Fraser said.
The proposal would not have any effect on tax rates.
“I personally think it's a no-brainer,” Select Board Member Carl Pike said of the proposal. “It's a way of providing a standard funding mechanism for capital improvements without having any immediate impact on the town.”
Pike said that Kingston will receive about $400,000 of the $700,000 exempt capital rolling off of the mortgage. Fraser’s proposal includes all three towns allocating their full exempt capital each year.
The Select Board voted to support the plan but is not yet taking any action; the three towns have to later vote to allocate the money to the stabilization fund during its approval of the fiscal year 2027 operating budget.
Fraser also said that the Silver Lake school committee supports the plan and has proposed a fiscal year 2027 budget with a 2.5% increase over fiscal year 2026 that includes the $700,000 exempt capital.
If the three towns continued allocating only $1.3 million per year to the stabilization fund, it would take 56 years to fully fund the $50 million in repairs recommended by an engineering and architecture report of the two buildings.
“There are some projects that we've definitely kicked the can down the road on. I don't think even the $1.3 million is going to answer the issue of the problems at the Silver Lake campus, but this gives us a substantial tool to approach some of those most dire projects,” Fraser said.
To take out a bond for the $50 million in repairs, Fraser said Kingston’s current yearly exempt capital payments to Silver lake would have to quadruple, and that replacing the buildings altogether would cost $500 million, he said.
“If we don't do anything, our buildings, which should last us for at least another 20, 25 years minimum, could fall into a state of disrepair where we might need to replace one or both of those buildings,” he said.
The amount of money that each town allocates to funding the two Silver Lake Regional schools is determined by the percent of students from each town that attend the schools. Kingston students currently make up over 50% of the student body.
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