The Moose Hill School was a hot topic at last week’s School Board meeting as Director of Pupil Services Kim Carpinone told the board that the school will hit capacity this January. She and Business Manager Peter Curro broke the news to the board that they will have to decide how to best handle the influx of new Pre-K and kindergarten students. School Board members did not seem pleased with the news.
The success of the Londonderry Early Education Program (LEEP) is typically good news. It means tax-payer money was well spent on a program that offers educational services to pre-k and kindergarten students in town, regardless of level or disability. But with when something is successful, everyone wants to take part and that is what has led to a high enough enrollment that Moose Hill is dangerously close to running out of room.
Curro explained to the board that “the reason we’re in this boat,” is because of high enrollment in the Friends Program at Moose Hill. In those classrooms, the kids are split where roughly half are typical learners and the other half are coded with a disability.
“The way I see it, the district has three years to figure out if it’s going to need an elementary classroom, yes or no,” said Curro.
Currently, the district predicts the potential number of new students by looking at the amount of building permits issued by the town. However, as Superintendent Scott Laliberte pointed out, it’s far more difficult to pinpoint how many children will be coming into town through home sales, and this has led to a big problem.
“We have too many kids and we don’t know where to put them,” Chairman Dan Lekas said.
Curro and Carpinone proposed three solutions to deal with the potential overcrowding at Moose Hill.
The first suggestion is to have modular classrooms, which are good for short term use and are the most cost effective. The second choice is to move either the kindergarten or the LEEP program out of Moose Hill and into a commercial space. The third option is to add a permanent addition to the school. All three have their pros and cons.
The modular classrooms would be trailers outside of the pre-existing building and the board is hesitant to invest the $170,000 to build two of them (with two classrooms in each), knowing it would cost an additional $50,000 a year to maintain them. Laliberte said the Friendship Program would not be moved into the trailers. Instead, it would be used by classrooms that focus on one to one and small group instruction, like the special education kindergarten class. It would, however, have a covered ramp and is the choice most recommended by the district administration.
Moving either program into a commercial facility is difficult because the state mandates that kindergartens have at least 15,000 square feet of space. Curro explained that realtors are having difficulties finding the appropriate amount of space needed for either program. Another problem is the district would have to hire a contractor to refit the space to meet the needs of the programs. For example, to ensure LEEP could be moved, the new space would need to have a sensory motor room for children to use for therapy and play, rooms for occupational and speech therapies, a playground and bathrooms that are meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Most importantly, the new space would need to be secure.
Vice Chair Jenn Ganem made her point clear to during the meeting, “I don’t want the kindergarten relocated.”
Building an addition could be best in the long term, but it still wouldn’t solve the immediate problem. There is also an issue of whether the school would build out, or up. According to Curro, there is a regulation prohibiting the kindergarten from being on the second floor, so he suggests that the school be built out. Lekas agreed. The projected cost of such an expansion is around $6 million. Curro suggested that if the district went ahead with the addition, that temporary classrooms be built for the next three to four years until it is finished.
Emotions ran high for the rest of the meeting with board members becoming upset over the idea of having to ask the tax payers for more money to go towards an expansion of any kind so soon after the start of the school year. Curro said the latest enrollment issue “showed its ugly head about three months ago,” which is why he and Carpinone could not get the information, nor the potential solutions to the board sooner.
“I’m surprised this board hasn’t been more prepared for this,” said board member Steve Young. “Shame on us.”
Some may think another solution would be to take no action at all. Carpinone insisted that this would be worse, because of a few logistical issues. First, the district cannot legally turn away students, even if the classrooms are full. Second, the district cannot send students out of district because it would be “more restrictive,” which is prohibited in most circumstances.
Carpinone explained that the kindergarteners would have to be redistributed among the other classrooms to make room for more kids. “There is a domino effect, she said.
Now, all of this is to deal with the current threat of over population of part-time kindergarten. With the state moving towards having all day kindergarten, the problem at Moose Hill can expect to get worse without a proper plan in place.
Dan Beaver, a former school board member and long-time Londonderry resident supported the idea of investing in the modular classrooms for the interim until the district and school board can come up with a better long-term solution.
“I think that is the most effective and reasonable solution. It’s also the easiest to implement,” said Beaver.
Lekas ended by things by saying the board will come back to it during the next meeting on Nov. 14.