Classrooms For Cape Tech’s Main Street Campus To Relocate

 HARWICH – Cape Cod Regional Technical High School has drastically altered its plan to locate a veterinary science and environmental science campus with a large classroom facility on conservation lands in North Harwich.

While the school still plans to use the land as a field site for the expanded programs, the construction of a major building will not happen. Superintendent Robert Sanborn said Monday that school officials are now considering locating the classroom on Cape Tech’s Pleasant Lake campus.

“The decision is definitely driven by cost,” Sanborn said, adding that school officials are also looking at downsizing the project.

 The proposal for the North Harwich land at 374 Main St. included development of a 10,000-square-foot modular classroom building for both programs. Estimates for the project had risen up to $10 million. 

The project had received several grants and school officials were waiting to hear on a Career Technical Education Capital grant from the state. The state did not issue the grants and called for new applications. On Monday Sanborn said he applied for the new round of the grant to locate the classroom facility on the southeast side of the school. Grant awards are expected to be announced in January, he said.

Sanborn said the new building would be similar in size to the one proposed at 374 Main St., but the cost would be reduced to the $5 to $7 million range. Utility costs and driveways would be much less because they already exist at the Cape Tech site. Sanborn also said school officials are looking at downsizing the project.

Funding is key to moving the project forward. Sanborn said a few of the grants provided for the 374 Main St. project had timelines that have expired, including a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant for $300,000. An Executive Office of Education Capital Skill grant for $1.25 million is likely to be downsized, he said.

“We still have money to raise,” Sanborn said. “If we don’t get the [Career Technical Education Capital grant] it will be a bigger setback.” 

The Main Street project also had environmental issues. The 33-acre site is under the conservation commission’s jurisdiction, and one of the two lots on the property is protected under Article 97, a state law that protects conservation areas from being used for other purposes without a two-thirds vote of both branches of the state legislature. The statute also requires a comparable replacement for the land.

The conservation commission and the town had agreed with the proposed use of the property, and the Tech School now holds a 25-year lease of the site. Sanborn said the school will retain the lease and will use the land as a field site for the programs, primarily for veterinary and environmental education purposes. There could be future plans to locate a greenhouse and barn on the section of the property not under the jurisdiction of Article 97, he added.  

Sanborn said school officials are sending lists of things they would do at the field site to the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs for its approval, including construction of a greenhouse and barn. During the previous town lease of the property to Leo Cakounes, there was a barn and a Quonset hut on the property.

The use of the 374 Main St. property as a field site would allow students in the veterinary science program to gain an understanding of basic animal science and husbandry associated with animal housing, nutrition care and reproduction. The environmental science program would focus on water and natural resources management, which dovetails with preserving the town’s natural assets.

The school hopes to partner with Cape Cod Community College in expanding education opportunities for students, Sanborn said.  

Should the Career Technical Education Grant be approved in January, Sanborn said the veterinary and environmental science programs could be available for students by September 2027.