Candia residents, some reluctantly, voted to spend $91,791 for architectural and engineering studies for a middle school in neighboring Auburn.

The warrant article spurred most of the discussion at the town’s annual School District Meeting on Saturday, March 10, at Henry Moore School. About 160 people attended the district’s last traditional School District Meeting, now that voters approved a change to official ballot voting, or SB2, on Tuesday, March 13.

Voters also approved putting $150,000 in a capital reserve fund for the district’s facilities needs, $12,500 for a new computer replacement reserve fund and $10,000 for a fund designed to cover unanticipated repairs at Henry Moore School.

The school district’s operating budget proposal of $7,167,814, agreed upon by both the school board and the budget committee, passed almost unanimously without any questions from the public.

The star of the meeting was the $91,791 question, which ultimately passed 82-72 in a secret ballot vote. If Auburn voters pass a similar warrant article at their Friday, March 16, School District Meeting, the two school boards will commence with engineering and architectural plans with the firm Team Design, and will also work to hammer out a longterm tuition agreement to send Candia’s sixth- through eighth-grade students to the neighboring town.

The school, which would be owned and maintained by the Auburn School District, would sit on a 58-acre site near Route 101’s Exit 2.

Candia School Board Chairman Karen Smith said the design money will allow the school board to come back next year with solid numbers for Candia’s involvement a school proposal. That differs from cooperative school proposals the district has initiated in the past which have been criticized because financial impacts have been purely speculative, she said.

“We want to be able to give folks not even estimates, but exact numbers next year,” said Smith.

Several Candia residents spoke out against the plan, and said they could get stuck footing part of the bill for an Auburn school without having a say in the education of Candia’s students.

“We’re not going to own the building and we’re not going to own any of the land,” said planning board member Joe Duarte.

“If it was a true partnership, I would certainly be in favor of it.” Resident Dr. Richard Zang, who prefaced his statements by saying it’s “unconscionable” that Candia’s middle school students are confined to Moore School, questioned this plan because he said it doesn’t provide a longterm fix to a lingering problem.

“(Auburn) is going to kick us out. We just don’t know exactly when,” Zang said. “This is just a bad deal.”

Other residents suggested Candia’s history at School District Meetings suggests townspeople are reluctant to move forward with any plan, and said improving conditions for middle school students has been an unsolved mystery for years, even decades.

“We keep fiddling while Rome burns,” said Brian Smith. “The whole time the kids are suffering.”

Resident Dennis Ducharme said townspeople have a long history of squelching large school facilities proposals, and said losing some control to Auburn might not signal disaster.

“Do you think you’re giving control to a bunch of idiots and bumpkins?” Ducharme asked. “No. You’re giving control to a bunch of people who care about their kids just as much as we care about our kids.”

Auburn voters will be asked to support an additional $146,009 for design money. If their voters reject the expenditure, Candia won’t lose the $91,791.