The second meeting of the town’s Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) Committee meeting took place on Monday night, July 23, and members heard from Peter Curro, the Business Manager for the Londonderry School District, who led the presentation of the two main projects suggested by the district for 2022-2024.
The projects main focus is on the capacity issues and necessary renovations at Moose Hill School and the town’s elementary schools. A Space Facility Study committee is looking into different option these days and trying to find a long-term solution for the space needs of the K to fifth grade facilities, where there is a problem with the functional capacity.
The School District’s estimation is that a solution, in any form, will cost $38 million (The final number may end up being less than that, around $35 million). That estimation is based on calculations of the extra space that is needed, should it be in a form of a new elementary school or a large expansion to Moose Hill School or any other option that will be suggested by the committee.
The main question that arose regarding this suggested project is why is there a need for an additional space at the Moose Hill School and the elementary school if in the mid-1990s there were 1,000 more kids in the district than there are today. That question was emphasized during the CIP Committee meeting by the Chair John Farrell, who recently criticized the School District’s request for additional buildings (Such as a new auditorium, another long-term project that could be found on the CIP report).
Curro explained that in the 1990s, the class size in the district was approximately 27 kids and now, following the School Board’s decision, it is 22 kids-per-class. The five-kid difference created more classes and the need for more classrooms. The Special Education In House program that began in Londonderry a little over a decade ago takes out seven classrooms in the elementary schools. This program is a replacement to the former solution of sending the Special Education kids to study outside of the district, something that cost a fortune to the taxpayers.
Music and art did not have their own rooms three decades ago and now take six extra rooms between the different elementary schools and Matthew Thornton Elementary School had three more available classrooms in the past. The combination of all of this leads to space that is needed to be found for almost 750 kids. North and South elementary schools can house and additional 100 kids, combined and the Planning Board believes that this number will arrive soon just from the new constructions in town. Moose Hill is two kids over its capacity and has purchased and installed two portable classrooms in the past. The school is currently looking into adding two more portable classrooms.
“The School District does not have the functional capacity after considering the class size, programs and state laws”, said Curro, who added that “the functional use of the buildings has changed dramatically” and that the School Board can increase the amount of kids in each class, but if that is not what the board wants, than a different solution is needed.
At this point, Farrell asked the School Board members and School District representatives that were in the room for a definition of “functional capacity” and said that there are 33 definitions online and that if they wish to go to the voters and ask them to approve this project, they must find the right way to do so, a way that could help the voters better understand why there is a need for additional space if there are 1,000 less students than there used to be. To that, Farrell received multiple answers from the people in the room, who tried to explain their view of the situation: That the raw numbers do not tell the right story and that the different developments in the district’s schools led to the space and capacity issues.
The second project that was presented by Curro was a District Wide Renovation for the elementary schools and the Londonderry Middle School, with an estimated cost of $15 million. About 15 years ago, classes were added to the middle school and the high school, were the core facilities were also addressed. Now, according to Curro, it is time to do that for the middle school as well. For the elementary schools, there is need to improve the architecture and design of the classes. Studies show that this provides much better learning environment then a 1950s style classroom. Curro said that something needs to be done with these classrooms, even if there are not enough funds to perfect the situation.