The Vineyard said YES.

The regional school agreement was adopted by a sweeping vote in all six Island towns at the special town meetings held Tuesday evening. Here are the figures:

                        Yes     No

Chilmark...........76     4

Edgartown.......309   73

Gay Head...........32    1

Oak Bluffs.......213   96

Tisbury............327   208

West Tisbury......93  16

Total...........    1050 398

The proponents of the regional school plan, including the committee under the chairmanship of Irving Kligler which had worked tirelessly for many weeks, were guardedly optimistic on the eve of the meetings, but no one was sanguine enough to expect so overwhelming a majority for the school.

Here is what the towns have voted for so far: they have established a regional school district and a regional district school committee. They have agreed upon a senior high school, to include grades from 9 through 12 inclusive, to be built in the general area southwest of the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven road, northeast of the Martha’s Vineyard Airport, and adjacent to the state forest.

Costs Are Apportioned

They have agreed to apportion the capital costs of a new regional school as follows: Tisbury, 34 per cent; Oak Bluffs, 24 per cent; Edgartown, 25 per cent; West Tisbury, 8 per cent; Chilmark, 6 per cent; Gay Head, 2 per cent. They have agreed to apportion the operating costs on the basis of the enrollments of the member towns.

They have set up working rules, including the method of determining budgets, making reports, and so on, and provision for amending the original agreement.

These are essential parts of the agreement entered into by the six towns. The full text has been printed in the Gazette previously and appears in the brochure with blue covers issued and distributed by the regional school planning board.

Here is what happens next: under the agreement, the six school committees must meet within ten days and appoint the nine members of the regional district school committee, two each from Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Tisbury, and one each from the other towns. The regional committee must then meet and organize within ten days.

This regional committee, after its organization, has power to acquire real estate and to employ architects, engineers and contractors. Plans for the new regional school will be submitted to the individual towns in due course, but no further actions is required of the towns unless they desire to register objections to the particular plans as drawn.