DURHAM – Thirty-three voters unanimously supported plans for a new elementary school in a state-mandated straw poll Tuesday night.
School Committee Chairman Amber Snell made the introduction, and Superintendent Shannon Welsh and Daniel Cecil of Harriman Associates made presentations.
One resident asked about retaining the current gymnasium and was told it had been considered, but it would be prohibitively expensive to bring it up to standards.
The school would be built in a central location on the current Durham Elementary School property on Route 9. Students would continue using the present facility until a new one opens. It would then be demolished and probably replaced with a parking lot.
The town’s acquisition of three adjacent properties since 2000 makes the site 29 acres with space to grow. Another plus is that it is in the geographic center of town and near the fire station and town office, residents were told.
The Durham school is number 11 on the Department of Education’s prioritized funding list.
An analysis on the cost of building a new facility versus renovation “convinced” the state that it would be most cost effective to build a new school, Welsh said.
Because the town meets the state requirement to contribute 7.6 mills toward education in its annual education budget, essentially all state-approved construction cost for a new school will be funded by the state, residents were told.
However, if the town wants additional space, playground equipment or fields it will have to be funded by local tax dollars.
Based on the latest projected enrollment studies, the school would house 500 students in grades kindergarten through eight. There are 365 students enrolled now.
The next steps for the School Committee is submitting the site application to the state in July; concept approval in December; a referendum in January 2007; bids sent Oct. 1; and bid openings Dec. 15. Construction would begin in 2008 and take 16 months. The potential construction timeline calls for the school to be completed in May 2009 and open in August 2009.
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