Letter: Vote Yes on School Warrant Article 2

To the Editor:

The Merrimack School District Planning and Building Committee urges you to support School District Warrant Article 2: funding a new consolidated Central Office. This is a bonded article and needs 60 percent to pass.

Creating a consolidated Central Office has been on Merrimack’s Capital Improvement Plan for over 10 years, but has been regularly postponed in favor of using available funds to meet our District's educational needs. The Superintendent’s office and the Special Services’ office are currently located in the two ranch-style houses located on the high school campus. Both buildings are extremely over-crowded and highly inefficient in addition to having space, safety, accessibility and privacy constraints.

Last fall, Hurricane Sandy damaged a large section of the roof at the Special Services building. Although insurance paid to fix that portion of the roof and help eradicate water and mold damage, the basement remains unusable. The School Board has an estimate of $177,000 to repair the leaky foundation and make the Special Services building fully habitable, but this amount does not address similar issues at the Superintendent’s office or improve the structures beyond their original design.

As a result, the School Board voted 5-0 to put forward a warrant article to build a new Central Office. The School District Budget Committee voted 9-2 in support of this article. The Town Planning Board has rated a new Central Office as "urgent." For more information go to http://www.merrimack.k12.nh.us/centralofficestudy.

The time is now. The need is critical. On April 9, please vote yes on School District Warrant Article 2.

Thank you.

MERRIMACK SCHOOL DISTRICT PLANNING AND BUILDING COMMITTEE
Rich Hendricks, Chair
Gage Perry, Vice Chair
Stan Heinrich
Finlay Rothhaus
Laurie Rothhaus
Sue Sheridan
George Markwell, School Board liaison