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.