Whitman Select Board moves to take over middle school bond financing from district

WHITMAN — November 18, 2025 — Whitman Select Board moves toward taking over middle school bond borrowing after district fails to attract bids. Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter told the board Tuesday that the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District has twice gone to market and received zero bids on borrowing for the Whitman Middle School construction project, most recently on a $30 million bond issue in May 2025, because the district lacked completed fiscal year 2022, 2023, and 2024 audits and could not obtain a credit rating. The district's existing $30 million bond anticipation note comes due March 18, 2026, and Carter said she does not see how the district can complete its audits, secure a rating, and close a new bond by that deadline. The town paid $431,793.31 in interest on the project's $8 million short-term note in fiscal year 2025 — $191,793 more than budgeted — because Oppenheimer charged 5.875 percent after no competitive bids materialized; Whitman's own double-A3 rating would have yielded roughly 3.8 to 4 percent. The board directed Carter to begin drafting an inter-municipal agreement that would let the town borrow on its own credit, a move that would require a special town meeting article and potentially a waiver from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.