VOTERS IN FOUR SEACOAST TOWNS HEAD TO THE POLLS AT TOWN MEETING ON TUESDAY.
AND FOR THE THIRD TIME IN AS MANY YEARS THEY WILL BE DECIDING WHETHER TO EXPAND AND RENOVATE HAMPTON'S OVERCROWDED WINNACUNNET HIGH SCHOOL.
AS NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC RADIO CORRESPONDENT ROGER WOOD REPORTS, STATE BUILDING AID IS THE CARROT THAT MIGHT CLOSE THE DEAL THIS TIME.
Winnacunnet High School was built in 1958 for 500 students.
Later additions have failed to keep up with the burgeoning school population, now standing at MORE THAN 12 HUNDRED.
School officials have dealt with the problem by adding a total of 14 modular classrooms.
What looks like THE SCHOOL IS SURROUNDED BY a mini trailer park.
STUDENT Katherine Chin takes three classes in the temporary buildings.
(Chin) :12
?It?s a pain, because one class will be in, like the west wing, and then I?d have English in the upper half of the school, and I?m always late, and that gives me detentions I don?t think I deserve.?
Other students say that the outbuildings are often cold and shake when the wind blows.
Winnacunnet High School Principal Ruth Levais stood in an older modular which doesn?t even have basic human comforts.
(Levais) :17
?These are the original ones, they?re a little bit smaller, you can see, and they don?t have bathrooms. Some of them do have bathrooms, but the ones that don?t the kids have to go inside the main building. So they have to go outside and back into the main building, and then come back out. It?s really quite an inconvenience.?
Even the front entrance of the main building IS CROWDED BY portable classrooms.
AND PRINCIPAL LEVAIS SAYS four more are on the way for fall.
(Levais) :18
?We?re starting to run out of places for them. We really like to have level ground, because it costs about $30 thousand dollars to set one of these up. And that?s if the ground?s level, because you have to run electricity and plumbing and all that. And right now we have four more coming for next year, and the only level ground we know of is the parking lot.?
The reason FOR MORE PORTABLE CLASSROOMS IS THAT THE SCHOOL IS EXPECTING 150 more students next fall.
THE ORIGINAL SCHOOL building HAS BEEN DIVIDED UP SO OFTEN THAT some classrooms and offices HAVE no windows or ventilation from the outside.
WHAT?S MORE, THE ROOF LEAKS?IN SEVERAL PLACES.
Chris Singleton?S DAUGHTER GOES TO Winnacunnet High.
(Singleton) :18
?I?ve certainly heard from her and also her classmates that the perils of going in and out, and you know even on a good day it takes a lot of time to get in and out of the modulars to get settled. There?s a lot of noise distractions , and it just cuts down on teaching time, and that?s what we?re concerned about.?
Yet, twice, the voters in Hampton, North Hampton, Seabrook and Hampton Falls, the towns that SEND THEIR KIDS TO WINNICUNNET, have rejected a proposed $26.85 million dollar high school expansion and renovation.
60 per cent of the cumulative votes in all four towns MUST approve the project FOR IT TO PASS.
AND supporters say IT MUST PASS THIS YEAR.
THIS IS THE LAST YEAR that state building aid will supply half of the project costs.
Ed Murtagh administers building aid for the State Department of Education.
HE SAYS NEXT YEAR the formula will change.
(Murtagh) :22
?The new law places limits on the size of school buildings, for which school aid will be paid. So that?s where this issue is coming from. And apparently, they want to build a school, or that the addition will result in a school which exceeds the limits that we pay.?
Over the last five years, Murtagh says, 173 DIFFERENT school projects ACROSS THE STATE HAVE TOTALED just under $800 million dollars.
AND sometimes, HE SAYS the total amount requested by the districts exceeds the state building aid available, especially in the second year of a biennial budget.
(Murtagh) :17
?If that situation occurs, then we pro-rate across the board, everybody gets the same percentage of their entitlement. That has happened six or seven times in the past, and every time that it has happened in the past, the legislature has made up that difference in the following biennium.?
State Senator Dick Green of Rochester is on the Senate Education Committee.
HE SAYS pro-rating building aid is a possibility.
(Green) :27
?The issue always becomes, is there enough money in any given year, based on the number of projects that are ready to go. And what happens then is, if there?s not enough money, they distribute the funds by pro-rating it.
Green says he knows of no specific problems that could affect future school building state aid in general.
BUT HE concedes THAT TOWNS AND CITIES ACROSS THE STATE ARE ANXIOUS ABOUT budget cutting.
In the case of Hampton, supporters now seem to have the edge for passage of the Winnacunnet High School renovation project.
Organized opposition APPEARS non-existent.
AND although long-time local businessman and former Selectman Glyn Eastman was recently quoted as a critic of the plan, he says that he doesn?t REALLY oppose it.
(Eastman) :17
?I would say the way I feel right now, and I had told this reporter I hadn?t made up my mind, but I probably will more than likely support the school when I go down and vote next Tuesday.?
However, Eastman, says he has talked to some residents who worry that other major municipal projects may surface as well,
THE RESULT THEY FEAR IS higher property tax bills.
For NHPR News, this is Roger Wood.
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