Following a lengthy debate, voters consolidated requests for additional athletic facilities for the new high school into one bond article during the Windham School District’s deliberative session.

Originally, $900,000 for a second gymnasium, $778,500 for three extra fields, and $3,819,980 for a multipurpose sports center were proposed in separate bond articles on this year’s school warrant.

But Chris O’Neil, chairman of the Athletics Committee, successfully moved at the Friday, Feb. 8, meeting to add funding for the fields and sports stadium to Article 2, the article that originally sought money only for the second gym. Article 2 will now seek $5,498,480 for all of them, with amounts in Articles 3 and 4 “zeroed out.” Article 2 needs a 60 percent majority to pass in March.

O’Neil argued that providing all the facilities fulfills a vision for the high school’s athletic program. That won’t happen if some of the articles, presented individually, don’t pass, he said. Another proponent of consolidating the articles, Mike Hatem, said there would be a construction cost savings by building the fields and the multipurpose center at the same time.

He also said that he didn’t want to pit parents of basketball players, who favor the gym, against parents of players of other sports by having separate articles.

Not everyone favored the idea. Margaret Case said she believes lumping the articles into one package together may jeopardize voter approval. And Mark Brockmeier noted that while the warrant for the proposed second gym can “stand on its own,” the extra fields and sports center depend on voters approving a separate article for a land swap.

“Everyone is intelligent enough to decide on each, on the merits of each one of them,” added *** Forde.

The three fields would consist of a baseball diamond, softball diamond and field hockey field. The sports center would consist on an artificial field surrounded by a track with bleachers, lights, outdoor scoreboard, a concession area, rest rooms and team rooms.

In order to have sufficient land to accommodate the stadium and fields, the School Board is asking voters to accept a transfer of 16 acres of town-owned recreation and conservation land to the school district. The district would exchange it for 40 acres of school districtowned land.

The School Board was not unanimous in its support of each of the three articles, and after the deliberative session it split on recommending them as a $5.5 million package. Beth Valentine, Bruce Anderson and Al Letizio, Jr. voted to recommend it, while Barbara Coish and Beverly Donovan were opposed.

“The benefit is great and the price is low,” Letizio said earlier in the meeting.

The $5.5 million package would be bonded over 20 years. A family in a $400,000 home would pay $68 a year. During the session, voters tweaked a $1.25 million bond article submitted by State Rep. Charlie McMahon. If approved in March, a second access road to Windham High School would be built.

An interest payment of $31,250 was added to the article, and the description of the road as a town road was dropped. By putting the road’s construction on the school ballot, McMahon said, the project would qualify for 30 percent state aid. And by law, he said, there needs to be another road for emergency vehicles.

“The school will not open unless we have a second access road,” McMahon said.

The road would be constructed over the area of the old London Bridge Road beginning at the entrance to the school and ending at Castlehill Road. Other warrant articles, including a proposed $34.45 million operating budget for the school district, generated little discussion during the session.