Essex, Manchester and school district revive joint talks on sharing services

Leaders from Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea and the Manchester Essex Regional School District want to meet regularly again to look for ways the two towns and their shared schools can save money by working together.

The group met Sept. 23 at Manchester Town Hall. The meetings were a longtime practice that, officials said, had narrowed in recent years to school business alone.

Essex Board of Selectmen Chair Ann Cameron said she wanted the talks back on "a more congenial footing," with the towns sharing what each is working on and where they could team up. Others suggested meeting about once a quarter.

Already under way

The two towns planned to start a shared senior van service Monday, Sept. 28, officials said. Essex selectmen ratified the agreement for Manchester to provide the rides that night. They also belong to the same regional emergency management group and have talked about working together on climate resilience grants.

Manchester Town Administrator Tony Barletta and Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki said they talk often about sharing public works and assessing services, but those ideas are still early.

Sharing staff is hard, Zubricki said. In past reviews, Essex found some shared positions would have cost the town more, because he already handles those duties himself.

Equipment and buildings

Officials said big purchases are a natural place to start. One noted that Manchester has spent millions on fire equipment in recent years, and asked whether both towns need their own of everything. Some public works gear, such as street sweepers, vacuums and traffic barriers, could be shared. Plow trucks could not, since both towns need them at the same time.

The school district said it is hiring a facilities manager after the person who combined that job with maintenance supervisor stepped down. The district relies on an outside cleaning company and contractors for most trades, and said it would welcome a partnership with the towns on grounds work. Manchester offered to ask whether its hourly heating and cooling technician could help.

District leaders also raised an old brick public works building near the school campus. It has been broken into, with broken windows and graffiti. The building belongs to the town of Manchester and is used for cold storage. Officials said reuse would be difficult because of old chemical storage and state restrictions tied to the nearby Lincoln Street well. Barletta said tearing it down is an option once Manchester settles its long term public works facility plans. He said he believed town crews had since cleaned it up and secured it.

Reaching out to Rockport

District leaders said they may approach Rockport's school committee chair and superintendent for an informal first conversation about sharing. Options could range from letting students take courses at each other's high schools to sharing a central office, as the Tri-Town Union of Boxford, Middleton and Topsfield does, while each district stays independent.

Rockport asked the regional district to join a regionalization study about a decade ago. The School Committee declined because it was in the middle of building Memorial School.

Officials from both towns said any arrangement must lower costs for Essex and Manchester, not add to them.

Essex Tech lottery

The group also discussed Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School's switch to a lottery for admission. District officials said the number of seats is about the same, but the lottery makes enrollment harder to predict because families can wait until school starts to decide. Tuition at the school is $18,225 per student for each town, officials said.