School Board to Make $1 Million CIP Request

The Windham School Board will double its 2011 Capital Improvement Plan fund allocation request from $500,000 to $1 million this year as the district works toward grinding out a solution to the middle school capacity issues.

Last year, the CIP committee allocated $711,000 of funds for the board to continue forward with the Facilities Master Plan.

This year's request is for "general dollars for use in adding 'capacity at the Middle School level.'"

The board chose that particular wording because it buys time to determine whether the funds, if allocated, will be used toward architectural and engineering fees, a new building bond or a middle school addition.

Board member Stephanie Wimmer acknowledged that going with the $1 million request is sending a clear message.

"We're saying that we're thinking of putting something on the ballot," she said.

While the board members couldn't come to any consensus as to what that item on the ballot would be, many said that allocated funds from the CIP would go toward completing architectural and engineering designs of some sort.

Fees of that nature that would have laid the groundwork for a new middle school on London Bridge Road were knocked down by voters in March.

Superintendent Henry LaBranche told the board that last year they were instructed to request $500,000, and ended up getting the $711,000.

LaBranche also said that the board appears far from a decision on the various options to address middle school capacity.

"I don't think this board is prepared to endorse (a bond) at this point in time," he said.

Many on the board, including Chairman Bruce Anderson, agreed that the information disseminated to the public last winter may have been overwhelming.

All money articles received 'no' votes, with the split from School Administrative Unit 28 being the only article that passed.

"There was a big information dump at the 11th hour," Anderson said.

He also agreed with the concept of funding A&E fees, because they would better the chance for state aid on a project as well as mitigate possible added costs such as those most notably seen in the building of the high school.

That project, according to the board, went millions of dollars over the expected budget.

In a community survey recently administered by the board, many voters cited added taxation as their reason for voting down several of the money articles on the school ballot.

Much of the discussion by the board was spent trying to figure out what residents would be willing to pay for while still solving facility issues.

Anderson said that its a matter of $10 million for the first phase of a two-phased addition to the current middle school, or over $20 for a new school.

Should a middle school addition be completed without phases, an option that Joanis said he disliked, it would also cost between $20 million and $25 million.

Joanis said that the total cost for A&E fees for whatever project the board wants to go with will cost over $1 million.

He added that the cost to build a new school is the cheapest it has ever been.

"I've been doing construction for over 25 years (and) I can honestly say that it is the cheapest time to build a new building," he said.

Board member Jerome Rekart said that its about explaining to voters that the large classroom sizes don't work, especially now that many students have Individualized Education Programs, or IEP's.

"We need to make the case for what we all believe – that 24 kids in a classroom is too many," he said.

The board barely brought up the idea again of using portables. That was another money item rejected by voters in March, and the community survey indicated that the majority of respondents want a permanent solution, not temporary.

LaBranche said that the principals of the school facilities have been tasked with determining the educational cost of the district doing nothing for capacity between 2013-2016. Those findings will be presented to the board.