School Board Kicks Off Facility Talks, Narrows Down CIP Strategy

The Windham School Board will bring forward a more modest Capital Improvement Plan request this year, as discussed during Tuesday’s meeting. 

The board agreed to make a request for roof replacement work, which is currently a need for all schools in the district. 

The district needs to fund  $433,000 in repairs for FY15 and $106,000 in FY16. 

Requests to the town’s CIP subcommittee need to be submitted by July 19. 

Jerome Rekart, school board representative to the CIP subcommittee, will work with SAU 95 Business Administrator Adam Steel to determine the feasible dollar amount for the request. 

A total of $207,000 in repairs is also needed for FY14, which will be funded through a capital reserve fund established in FY12. 

“It’s a realistic plan, it’s a small enough amount (and) it’s being proactive showing a two- to three-year plan, said school board member Dennis Senibaldi. “I think you’ll get a great response from the residents.” 

Senibaldi also brought up the option of bringing a plan to fund a field to the CIP, spread out over several years.  

School board Vice Chair Stephanie Wimmer worried about athletic field requests sending the message that those fields are being prioritized over classroom space. 

Last year, the board requested $1 million to address capacity at the middle school level. The CIP subcommittee offered $630,000 in funding. 

Senibaldi said that big requests to the CIP can potentially bump major project requests on the town side. 

Following the CIP request in 2012, the board put forth a $31 million warrant article in March 2013 for a new London Bridge Road school and a turf field at Windham High School. The article was knocked down by voters. 

In March 2012, voters also axed a capacity proposal for modular classrooms, along with an article to fund the architectural and engineering fees to design a new school. 

If the board places any bond articles on the 2014 ballot, they will first hear from the public on several occasions. 

Chairman Mike Joanis said that a general discussion will first take place at Town Hall on July 23. 

“The intention wouldn’t be to have hard scope of work or hard dollar amounts,” Joanis said of the meeting. “It would be to just lay it all out on the table and allow the public to comment, taking people’s opinions, input, preferences, concerns, comments, etc.” 

Similar to last year, the board will narrow down a short list of options to a final decision. Joanis said the plan is to make that determination by early November. 

Before November, two other public forums will be scheduled in September and October. 

Joanis recapped some of the possibilities that remain on the table. 

Options are to do nothing, install general modular classrooms, move the eighth grade to the high school, renovate the middle school, make site improvements to the middle school or construct a new school.

On the field side, options are to replace the softball fields at the middle school, install a track on one of the district-owned properties, construct a stadium with track on one of those properties or install a turf field at the high school. As always, there is also the option to do nothing.

The district does not expect any state building aid to come the town’s way this year, something that was hoped for in 2012.