BY MATT HERSH

Only a month after Salem school officials announced their $40 million high school renovation plan, they’re already considering scaling it back.

Members of the Budget Committee and the Board of Selectmen recently had their first official look at the plan to overhaul the 40-year-old school.

Superintendent Michael Delahanty said both groups were concerned with the price tag. They expressed concern that voters wouldn’t support the project.

This criticism will be discussed by members of the Facilities Committee when the group meets on July 16.  Delahanty said the group will consider making some changes to the preliminary plan.

“I think we need to have a serious discussion,” Delahanty said. “If (the Facilities Committee) comes up with a different recommendation, I think we should consider it.”

Currently, the renovation plan proposes some major changes to the school, which Delahanty hopes will make it last another 40 years.

There are several proposed changes to the school, the largest of which is a new 75,000-square-foot athletic facility to be built close to the school’s existing running track. 

The large building would become the school’s only athletic center and would be connected to the main building via an overhead walkway. The two existing gyms would then be used for additional classrooms.

The school’s main entrance and administrative offices would switch places with the current library, which faces
Geremonty Drive. Science rooms and the auditorium will also be expanded.

Delahanty said the two groups were critical of the size of the new athletic facility but he believes it will prove to be a vital improvement for the community. 

However, the Facilities Committee will consider reducing the facility’s size, which may cut the price tag by a few million. 

Still, Delahanty said he’d like to see the plans stay as they are.

“There is some effort to reduce the size of it but I would rather bring a proposal in front of the town that we believe is the best one,” he said. “My thinking is that we still need to go through with the most prudent and efficient plan for the community.”

Despite Delahanty’s support of the plan, Budget Committee member Stephen Campbell said the new athletic facility is too much to ask for.

“This plan feeds into the stereotype that at Salem High School, if you’re a jock, you’ll get anything you need,” he said. 

“If academics are your number one priority, why isn’t the new building for science or math?”

Campbell called the science room renovations an “afterthought” and said Delahanty shrugged his shoulders about the plan’s focus on athletics.

He also cited that 600 Windham students will leave Salem High School when their own high school is completed and enrollment projections show that elementary school numbers are declining in town.

“If you add space, that’s going to add to capacity,” he said.  “We’re going to have a building that is 70-percent occupied. It’s adding to a school that’s already big enough.”

If the plan remains unchanged, the school district will ask voters to approve a $2.4 million bond article in March that will cover the cost of drafting blueprints and securing Frank P. Marinace Architecture.

A $40 million bond would appear before voters in March 2009. If passed, construction would begin in 2009 and be completed by the fall of 2011.

The project would raise taxes by about 65 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. A home valued at $300,000 would see a $200 increase in their bill per year.

Delahanty said he remains confident that voters will see the community’s need and support the project.

“If it fails, I won’t look back and regret my decision,” he said. “I’d rather have that than propose a lower-quality building and in 10 years see that it didn’t work.”