At the May 8 meeting for the School Board, members welcomed the Class Officers from the graduating Class of 2018 to present their idea for the Senior Gift.
Lead by Class President Jeff Cieslikowski, the students presented their idea to update the current sign display at Londonderry High School.
The students told the board that the sign outside the high school is a bit outdated and is in need of some repairs. The platform at the bottom of the sign is currently being held up by cinder blocks and can be dangerous for the grounds crew whose job is to change the lettering on the sign regularly.
Other issues the sign has is the paint both fading and peeling and the sign overall does not reflect the status of Londonderry being a 21st century school, according to the presentation given by Cieslikowski.
In the PowerPoint presentation, students showed their research on the current situation of the sign, what other school displays currently look like, what the sign in front of the high school could look like, and why the school needs a digital sign. For the current situation, only one message can appear at a time and can be left up there for weeks at a time. During a snowstorm, the area around the sign needs to be plowed in order for the grounds crew to safely access it. The idea for the digital sign would have a conservative type font with either a yellow, amber, or red colored font. Cieslikowski commented that at first he was concerned a digital sign was going to look like a big flashing sign as you drove by Londonderry High School. “When I discovered that this was the type of design (like the signs outside of Pinkerton and Windham High School) that we would be implementing at the school, I realized that it would be something that wouldn’t even appear as a digital sign. It would appear as something that would simply have a changeable message that could change a couple times a day,” he said.
School Board member Dan Lekas commended the Class Officers for their hard work on their presentation and commented how much education they are receiving from learning about this process. “It is certainly a great lesson to learn if you go forward with this and you have to go through the ranks of it all,” Lekas said. Vice-Chairman of the Board Nancy Hendricks felt this idea was “brilliant” and felt for years that the sign is becoming out of date. “I love that you all thought about your community and want to give back to your community,” Hendricks said.
The School board unanimously gave their stamp of approval for the Class of 2018 to move forward with this project and member Steve Young commented how he would not be surprised if this design ends up in the design guide for the town to follow. Young also warned the students that this is a long process. “We need to put all of the gears in motion,” Young said. This process may take up to another two years by the time the town gets through the process of putting this through as a zoning regulation.
The next step is for the students to get the approval from the Heritage Commission to make sure the sign fits within their standards; their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 24. If their approval is given, the students will go back to the School Board to move forward with the digital sign.