By Alex Malm
The School Board received an update from members of the Kindergarten Committee during its May 23 meeting.
As part of the charge of the committee, one of the things they looked at was what would be needed if they were to stick with half day kindergarten at Moose Hill and what would be needed if they would go with full-day in the future.
To keep their current programming, the committee said they would need more kindergarten classrooms, therapy spaces, small classroom instruction space, staff space, and to have a better entrance system, along with fixing traffic issues they encounter due to the current layout of the drop off and pick up.
If the district were to go with a full-day kindergarten, they would need to add additional classrooms along with other spaces , and an additional playground.
It was explained by Superintendent, Dan Black, that in order to meet spacing needs they have to subdivide classrooms over the years and his biggest concern is seeing students working in small groups in the hallways.
“I don’t think we want kids learning in the hallways,” Black said.
Black said they were looking for permission from the School Board to work with Trident to get accurate numbers of how much the two projects would cost.
For Phase 1, which would be adding space for their current program, the conceptual design is to have it done in two parts.
As part of Phase 1, one of the things that would be looked at is improving the drop off and pick up area for students.
It was explained that currently, unlike the other schools, Moose Hill doesn’t have a good “loop” to allow parents and buses to drop off students, which causes issues with the traffic control.
“Not having that loop has become more and more problematic at Moose Hill,” Black said.
The second part of Phase 1 would include adding a multi-purpose room along with other spaces.
For phase 2 of the project, which would be if they moved forward with all day kindergarten, they would be looking at adding seven more kindergarten classrooms, along with adding a kitchen and cafeteria, which would all be used as a multi-purpose room space.
School Board Chair, Bob Slater, recommended they create a building committee with about five members who are professionals from Londonderry, but aren’t on the Kindergarten Committee to work with the Trident Group and to help the committee move forward.
Black said he thought it would be good to get help from a building committee.
One question asked was whether or not there would come a time when they couldn’t handle adding more students even with the addition.
Black said it’s a question that scares the administration as well.
“I think it’s the question that scares us the most,” Black said.
The School Board agreed to move forward with having a cost analysis done.
“Let’s take it to the next step,” Slater said.