By Alex Malm
During the Sept. 6 Londonderry School Board meeting, Interim Superintendent, Dan Black, explained it is important the district begins to map out what they want to do in terms of renovations and repairs.
He said he feels they need to come up with a short term plan along with a longer term plan.
Black stated that right now they are in a good spot since they have nothing that is in interment failure right now.
During the meeting, Black made four recommendations of what he feels are some of the most pressing concerns.
Black said their most pressing issue are mechanical, including things like boilers that are past their life.
He said they are hoping to get a read of what needs to be replaced in one to three years for boilers.
“No one in this room wants a boiler to break in January,” said Black.
Another major area that Black pointed to is the space at Moose Hill. He explained he feels bad the library for the school is in a staff room.
“We are out of permanent space in that building,” said Black, who noted they need a long term plan for the school.
He stated one of the important things to look at is the future programing there; like all day kindergarten.
Another priority that Black recommended was the District office and whether or not they want to continue with their plan from last year, or go with a different one.
Black said they also need to address the older parts of the high school.
“We have some issues there,” said Black.
Black explained that because of the supply chain issues they need to pay attention to how long things take. For example it would take about a year and a half to get a boiler right now.
“These things are going to take a long time,” said Black.
Black thinks eventually the School Board should have a public comment period to discuss the tentative plan.
School Board member, Bob Slater, said he wants to get a consensus from the Board for the four items presented by Black to make sure that is all their priorities.
If that is the case he said they should come back in two weeks to the next School Board meeting and then go with public forums.
To him, on the top of the list is addressing the mechanical issues.
“Mechanical is number one,” said Slater.
Slater explained he is concerned about costs going up along with the bond rates potentially going up. Because of that he wants to see what the price for the district office is projected to be and if it’s too expensive they could look at something else.
He said if they agree to move forward with trying to build a new district office then they should move it to the top of the list because of the uncertainty with prices.
School Board Vice Chair, Sara Loughlin, stated she thinks Moose Hill should go ahead of the District office.
“I think we need to look at our students and what their needs are,” said Loughlin.
School Board member, Amanda Butcher, said she also agreed that Moose Hill is important to look at, especially since the state may begin requiring all day kindergarten.