With plans in place to fund a secondary access road for the new Windham high school, town and school district officials look forward to welcoming students to the facility in the fall.

Concerns that the $55 million building would not open on time were laid to rest last on Jan. 13 after the School Board voted 3-2 to put up $500,000 for the estimated $900,000 Class V paved road. Fire Chief Thomas McPherson had previously warned school district and town officials that he would not sign off on the building – situated in the woods about a mile back from Route 111 – unless a second road was built for emergency vehicles.

“It’s a pretty big relief. I think that my life has been pretty peaceful for the past (few) days,” said Bruce Anderson, vice chairman of the School Board. “The fact that we resolved this without going to court put a lot of people’s minds at ease. It’s a collective sigh of relief for people on both sides of the issue. This problem, that of the road issue, will not get in the way of the school opening.”

Anderson described the debate between School Board members held in a nonpublic session as “spirited.”

“We were not pleased about having to take the money out of our contingency fund when it could be used for other things, and that was the difficulty that everybody on the board shared,” Anderson said. “What it came down to was the majority of the board felt that spending that money to guarantee that this school would open without further legal battles was worth it.”

With the remaining funding supplied by selectmen and a $250,000 donation from abutter Jim Logan, school officials are happy to now focus entirely on preparing the new building for students.

“We can now concentrate all of our efforts on the school itself and not on outside forces,” said Superintendent Frank Bass. “Right now we’re concentrating on ordering all of the necessary materials. We have now 450 applicants for 28 teaching positions, and we’re very excited by the talent pool.”

Though town officials estimate that constructing the road will take about eight months, the work should be finished in time for school to start at the end of August, according to David Sullivan, town administrator.

The challenges facing school officials now include purchasing educational materials, implementing a curriculum and convincing voters to pass two warrant articles in a tough economic climate that would allow for the construction of a track and field and a gymnasium for the high school.

“The big challenge going forward is the completion of the high school relative to the fields, the curriculum and now how we’re going to pay for it,” said Selectman Charles McMahon. “There is quite bit that has to be done. There is the cost of maintaing and running it and having a sustained tax base to support it as a town. We need to work together as a town.”

Bass described the work as “energizing” and said he looked forward to addressing the challenges as they come. “It’s all exciting work,” Bass said. “We don’t get bored.”