Voters to decide on school addition for 3rd time

Thursday, February 11, 2010

WILTON – At the request of the Lyndeborough Budget Committee, a plan for an addition to the Central School will go before voters for the third time.

Its chances might be better this year, because the new combined Wilton/Lyndeborough Cooperative School District operates under traditional town meeting rules, so the project will need just 50 percent support.

The old Lyndeborough School District, which was combined with Wilton and Wilton/Lyndeborough to make the new, single cooperative district, operated under Senate Bill 2 rules, meaning the project needed 60 percent approval. Every year the proposed addition has received a majority vote, but never got to 60 percent.

“This is the best thing for the school,” Committee Member Kevin Boette told about 10 people at a bond hearing at the high school on Feb. 4, held prior to the presentation of the proposed cooperative school district budget. “(The plan) isn’t adding a lot to the tax rate, it’s well thought-out. It’s a reasonable request.”

Committee Member Jim Button said the plan is included in the town’s Capital Improvements Plan, preventing any large “spikes” in the tax rate.

School Board Member Fran Bujak presented the plan and argued that it should go through because 40 percent state support for school construction may end soon.

The addition would remove the current cost of $3,300 per kindergarten student who has to be sent out of district, by providing room for them at the Lyndeborough Central School.

Bujak emphasized that “no contracts will be signed unless the state money is available.”

The addition plan is little changed from previous years: a kindergarten room on the eastern end of the building, new classrooms for first and second grades, two handicapped accessible bathrooms, and renovations of the present building to improve special education spaces, library and computer rooms.

New this year is the possibility of providing temporary space for the out-of-district placement of pre-kindergarten special needs students, currently at a cost of about $90,000.

The cost of the addition is $900,000, with 40 percent to be covered by state aid. A capital reserve fund could be used to cover financing the bond.

It was estimated that the larger building would be an additional $39,600 per year after state reimbursement for kindergarten (12 students at $1,200).

Bujak also said that the boiler in the oldest part of the school (built in 1949) will probably have to be replaced if the addition is not approved. That cost is estimated at between $22,000 and $30,000. The boiler upgrade is part of the renovation plan.

To vote on the addition, voters have to attend the district meeting at the high school on Friday, March 5.