Does anyone have information

[uscitizen03054]

I noticed the following agenda item for the last School Board meeting.

7. Update on Study to Consolidate the Superintendent’s Office and Special
Education Office – Rich Hendricks

Does anyone know the status of this, are we looking at another new building?

[andysinnh]

USC - there's an engineering study line item in the school budget to look at utilizing space within existing school-own buildings to move the offices for the superintendent and the special education departments. The goal is to find space that just needs to be re-tooled vs building new buildings, at least at this point.

andy

[uscitizen03054]

USC - there's an engineering study line item in the school budget to look at utilizing space within existing school-own buildings to move the offices for the superintendent and the special education departments. The goal is to find space that just needs to be re-tooled vs building new buildings, at least at this point.

andy

Thanks Andy. I did watch the meeting and one board member stated he thought there could be a warrant on the ballot next year asking to construct a new building. He also spoke about some of the work to date included studies of rudimentary/preliminary costs of a commercial building.

[lynn]

this was brought up during the CIP review at the planning board.
The two buildings referenced are too small and not in very good condition.
The planning board was not much interested in hearing about a new building
they suggested finding space in an existing school - most probably the new middle school.

with regards to the cost - I seem to remember - without digging out my materials, that the number on the CIP
was 1mil. Which the planning board also had an opinion on

[andysinnh]

There's a $30k line item in the budget to look at what options would be feasible. One of the targets was space at MUES - I think MMS was considered but there may not be enough contiguous open space to make it work. But the study will be able to determine one way or the other. I believe that early on they eliminated building a new structure for this. The target is, I believe, to do the work early in the 10-11 budget year and come up with a plan that, once the SB agrees, will become a warrant article next year. After listening to the discussions in the budget reviews, it was apparent that providing the $30k for the formal study was critical given the condition of the existing buildings (which were residential houses when I was at MHS in the 70's...)

andy

[uscitizen03054]

There's a $30k line item in the budget to look at what options would be feasible. One of the targets was space at MUES - I think MMS was considered but there may not be enough contiguous open space to make it work. But the study will be able to determine one way or the other. I believe that early on they eliminated building a new structure for this. The target is, I believe, to do the work early in the 10-11 budget year and come up with a plan that, once the SB agrees, will become a warrant article next year. After listening to the discussions in the budget reviews, it was apparent that providing the $30k for the formal study was critical given the condition of the existing buildings (which were residential houses when I was at MHS in the 70's...)

andy

Andy thanks for the information. I do have questions I hope someone could answer.

Given for most organizations, $30K is a great deal of money why is this targeted at consultants during a time when we are letting staff go?

Why is the building in poor condition in the first place? Age does increase maintenance costs but in our own town, there are many very old buildings that are in marvelous condition. Did the school district let these buildings fall into disrepair?

[hdw]

I have a suggestion. I'll do the study for 10k and give the money to the people in town who can't afford to pay their heating bill. I just cut the study by 20k and donated the money to the citizens of Merrimack. Of course after I do the study, there won't be a new building with expensive hard wood floors or space for additional staff. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. Tax revenue isn't the problem, spending is. Give me 10k to be donated to the needy town citizens and I will do the study a third grader can do.

[andysinnh]

USC and hdw - thanks for your insights - in the bud comm we didn't discuss anything beyond what I've shared here. I suggest you go to the groups that are more closely involved in this discussion - the school planning and bulding committee and the school board - and you'll get more relevant data.

cheers - andy

[RBarnes]

Why is the building in poor condition in the first place? Age does increase maintenance costs but in our own town, there are many very old buildings that are in marvelous condition. Did the school district let these buildings fall into disrepair?

US, I'm not 100% sure that "poor conditions" refers to poorly maintained buildings. It could be that they no longer meet the codes required by state and federal guidelines.

Take the special ed department for instance. They are not accessible to wheelchairs so they actually have to find alternative locations for testing when dealing with some of the special ed children that come through.

This has been a known problem for some time though so it should have been considered when we built the new school.

[lynn]

it was considered
the green house could be torn down and the
the wing housing admin could be extended

[uscitizen03054]

it was considered
the green house could be torn down and the
the wing housing admin could be extended

I wonder why adding the space for school administration was not considered when the new wing was added to MHS? Does someone know why, I suspect it would have been more cost effective to add N additional square feet to the new wing when it was being constructed. Now beyond the $30K to "study" the space issue, we may have to pay for additional construction costs.

[lynn]

there was not a "need" at the time and to keep the cost down it was not done
but it was recognized that at some point in the future the useability of those 2 buildings
would need to be revisited and tearing down the green house and just extending the wing
would make sense.

It just didn't need to be done then

[Jeannine Stergios]

Seems to me there are plenty of available properties in town to house these offices without spending so much money. Enrollment continues to drop so I'm sure they could find some room in one of the schools.

I think the 30k is a waste of money at this time.

[lynn]

that was the opinion of the planning board when they they came in to review their CIP