BY DARRELL HALEN
The Windham School Board has put forward warrant articles to provide additional funds for the town’s high school project.
Article 2 would, if passed by voters in March, provide $4 million to increase classrooms to boost capacity from 800 to 1,000 students; add two athletic fields, more furnishings, fixtures and equipmen, and increase the kitchen’s capacity to service the entire school district.
The bond article needs a 60 percent majority to pass. It’s estimated that the bond, during the year of its greatest impact, would cost a family living in a $400,000 home $60.
Article 3 would, if approved, add an additional $3 million to the project and would add a lecture hall, a small gym, outdoor lighting and bleachers, a greenhouse, and convert one playing field to a turf sports field.
The article’s passage is contingent upon Article 2 being approved. It, too, needs a 60 percent majority to pass.
Together, Articles 2 and 3 cost $7 million. The bonds, in the year of their greatest impact, would cost the owners of a $400,000 house $104.
Article 4, if passed, would allow the school board to spend $3 million in interest on bonds approved for the school two years ago.
The interest money would be used to pay for costs associated with the project.
Under this article, Windham High School would have a student capacity of 800 students, and will be have a projected useful life of 5 to 10 years. After that, officials say the school would need more space.
The article carries no tax impact and needs a simple majority to pass.
Without the money, the school will have to be redesigned, according to school board Chairman Bruce Anderson.
Two years ago, voters approved a pair of bond articles, totaling roughly $44 million, to buy land, and to build and furnish the high school.
However, bids for the project came in roughly $13 million over budget. Harvey Construction has advised the school board that the district can afford a school of approximately 170,000 square feet, assuming that the district is allowed to spend the $3 million in interest.
The original size of the school, designed by Team Design, the project’s initial architect, was 228,000 square feet. But it later increased to about 240,000 square feet.
The school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009. On Saturday, Jan. 20, selectmen, school board members, representatives of Harvey Construction and others gathered for a small groundbreaking ceremony.
“Today, after years of work, we begin turning the plans and dreams of Windham High into a physical reality by turning over the first shovels of dirt,” Anderson told the gathering.
The building’s foundation is expected to be poured this summer. The building’s construction is expected to require less than two years.