School Board Candidates Both Confident About Voter Support

Confidence is high from both Windham School Board candidates as a steady stream of voters trickles in to Windham High School on election day.

Incumbent Dr. Bruce Anderson, who has served three previous terms on the board, said it was hard to tell what voters are thinking, but that he has heard good things from residents.

"I'm hearing from a lot of people that I have their support," he said.

His opponent, Dennis Senibaldi, who previously served as a selectman, also believes there has been a very positive response to his campaign.

In the time leading up to election day, he said that a bunch of friends helped him out with a huge phone drive – over 1,000 people called in all – to help gain support from voters.

Senibaldi has run on a platform against Article 2, which calls for $31 million toward a new seventh and eighth grade school on London Bridge Road and a corresponding turf field at WHS.

Anderson and his fellow board members have endorsed the bond article.

A similar proposal in the form of just architectural and engineering fees failed in 2012.

Asked if he expected the school issue to be the focal point for the race between he and Senibaldi, Anderson noted that Article 2 is of course the biggest issue, but added that it's the only issue that Senibaldi ever talks about.

Anderson spoke to other issues that have taken a backseat in 2013, such as the teacher contract that appears as Article 3 on this year's ballot.

"That contract represented three years of work at the negotiating table," said Anderson.

Despite taking a stance opposite that of the School Board, Senibaldi is still confident that he can work with the board if elected.

"I'm convincing, I'm very persuasive," he said. 

He said that board member Mike Joanis will be a good person for him to reach out to first because the two both have backgrounds in construction.

Senibaldi said that with a project like Article 2, there shouldn't have to be so much selling involved to get voter support. 

He added that if the article fails, the board will have to reassess the issue and do some "serious soul-searching."

One major argument against a new school has been the interest cost on the $31 million project, which opponents say will spike the total impact to $51 million.

Anderson reiterated a comment he made yesterday on Windham Patch explaining what that interest figure means.

"When we extend the payment period we pay more interest," said Anderson in his Patch comment. "Hence, if you include the cost of principal and interest it does indeed get to the $50M range. Keep in mind, if we bonded the whole project at current interest rates for 20 years (similar to WHS) we would save about $10M in interest. However, the tax impact in the early years of the bond would be significantly higher. Thus, we extended the period to lessen the impact in any one year."

Senibaldi has argued that while the impact to the taxpayer is spread out, the high-water mark that the district is trying to not rise above each year is inflated due to the kindergarten cost. 

Article 2 is a bond article, meaning that it requires 60 percent of voter support to pass.

Town Moderator Peter Griffin said that as of 12:20 p.m., 1,077 residents had cast their ballots.

Supervisor of the Checklist said that 12 new voters registered today, half of which were high school students. That brings the current tally of registered voters to 9,976, meaning that close to 11 percent of registered voters have cast a ballot.

Town Clerk Nicole Merrill said that 6,500 ballots were printer rather than the standard 4,000 to be safe.

Town Moderator Peter Griffin said that historically town elections have a low turnout.

"The bond will probably inflate that number, but I can't say by how many," he said.

Griffin said that the extra ballots were not ordered specifically for Article 2, but rather to make sure there are enough ballots so Xerox copies of blank ballots don't have to be made.

Those copied ballots need to be counted by hand, which slows the result process at the end of the night.

"We have to provide an environment to the voter that is conducive to voting," Griffin said.

The polls will remain open until 8 p.m.