BY DARRELL HALEN

Plans to open six portable classrooms in early February at Pelham High School are on schedule.
School officials want to move approximately 150 students out of the main school building, where serious fire code violations have been found.

Pelham School Board chairman Michael Conrad has signed a lease with Schiavi Leasing Corp. of Oxford, Maine, for the school district to rent the classrooms for two years – from Feb. 1, 2007 to Jan. 31, 2009 – at a monthly rental charge of $3,517.

The 84-by-66-foot modular classroom complex will be located on an athletic field at the southeast corner of the school.

The school district is paying a one-time charge of $116,150 for delivery, set up, anchoring, excavation and installation of a gravel pad, excavation for utilities, and other expenses to get the classrooms ready for use.

Workers have been doing the necessary preparation work and school officials expect the classrooms to be ready for occupancy on Feb. 1.

“We’ve been really lucky with the weather,” said Brian Gallagher, the school district’s business administrator.

Utility costs for the portables have yet to be determined. Propane gas will be used to heat the classrooms, Gallagher said.

According to the contract with Schiavi, it will cost the school district $20,020 at the end of the lease for tear-down and building removal, removal of the gravel pad, and to loam and seed the site.

The district can purchase the classrooms at the end of the lease for $234,800, according to the contract.