School Board to Talk with Parents About Future of Haigh School

The Salem School Board will meet with members of the Walter Haigh Elementary School parent community Tuesday to answer questions and concerns related to the future of the facility.

The meeting will be held in the multi-purpose room of the Haigh School library at 6:30 p.m.

According to Peter Morgan, secretary of the school board, he and other members have answered individual parent questions prior to the meeting One question raised was whether or not the school district still has the same plan for Haigh School that was in place before the March election.

That plan, according to Morgan, was to keep the school open as long as it makes sense to keep the school open, which he said remains the case.

Voters approved a proposal to renovate Fisk and Soule Schools with modest improvements to Haigh School, but narrowly knocked down a separate article for HVAC improvements to Haigh School.

"Most likely right now, even though class sizes are fairly small, we don't have room in the other schools to move kids from Haigh (School) to the other schools," said Morgan.

If any closure of Haigh School were to happen, Morgan clarified that it wouldn't take place until at least a couple of years out.

"If (class sizes) continue to drop two, three somewhat years out, then we'll have reasonable room at other schools if they decide to close Haigh School," he said.

But Morgan noted that the school board as it currently sits will not be the one to make that decision.

Using three different models, a demographic needs analysis for the school district published last September projects that class sizes will continue to drop over the next decade. According to the report, the district has seen an overall decline over the last seven years.

Morgan referenced Salem's Facilities Master Plan published in February 2010 by Lavallee Brensinger Architects. The reports indicates that Haigh School is the smallest of Salem's six elementary schools at 23,258 square feet.

According to the report, the nearly 60-year-old building requires infrastructure upgrades and many of the ceilings, wall and floor finishes need replacement due to the aging condition.

The plan recommends a preliminary design option to take care of building limitations and also address areas where potential efficiency gains could be found.

Morgan said that some of the parents might have some ideas as to what they think should be done with the Haigh School building over the next couple of years.

"We won't know what the questions are until (the parents) are there and they ask us," he said.

Tuesday's meeting was originally supposed to take place a week before the election, but was pushed due to a winter snow storm.