By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

LONG WAIT – Weare voters lined up along the hallway and outside the building waiting for a seat in the Center Woods Elementary School gym for the deliberative session of the Weare School District Meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8. Most showed up to support the warrant article to bond the building of a new middle school. (Nathan Duke Photo)

A record number of enthusiastic people showed up at the deliberative session of the Weare School District Meeting to show their support for the proposed middle school and listen to the school board's presentation.

Close to 200 residents waited in a line that wrapped around Center Woods Elementary School on Tuesday, Feb. 8, causing the meeting to begin nearly 15 minutes late so the audience could get situated.

I'm extremely proud of our community,” said School Board Chairman Matt Thomas. “The total attendance in this room exceeds the total number of people attending in the past five years. You should be proud of yourselves, no matter what side (of the issue) you are on.”

If opponents of the middle school proposal were in attendance, they did not make themselves known, as people screamed and cheered during and after the board’s presentation. The audience rewarded the board with a standing ovation that lasted about 30 seconds.

Parents of potential students of the new school praised the efforts of the school board.

“I’m extremely optimistic that the town will come through for us with the school,” said Amy Pineault, whose daughter is a student at Weare Middle School. “My current seventh-grader says that she wants a school that is safe for her to go to.”

Resident Bruce Slabinski has a daughter who will attend the new middle school if the article to construct it passes on March 8 and the school is fully operational by the board’s goal of fall 2006. He said that he fully supports the middle school proposal.

“The current school is in disarray,” he said. “It’s a money pit – a very poor learning atmosphere. I’ve always been for the new school. One of the most important things for me is my children getting educated in a proper learning atmosphere.”

Thomas said that the new school will cover 131,000 square feet and house 920 students. The proposed project cost is $18 million, which includes construction costs, demolition of the current facility where the new school will be built, asbestos abatement and furnishings. He said that the plan is the best and only option for the town to have a fully operational new middle school by late 2006.

“Every year we get a chance to change the course we have been on,” he said. “The problem is here with us until we solve it. There is no other solution for the community. That is the solution.”

Only a few residents posed questions for the board, including concerns about reducing the speed limit on Route 114 in front of the school and whether the town’s sewer system can cover the school. Thomas said that the state has asked the board to make the road in front of the school traffic-friendly and that the sewer system will cover the middle school.

He said that the school board switched properties for the school, from the site across from the safety complex to the current campus, because they determined the land on the original site was not adequate for 920 students and that a septic system could not be placed there. He also challenged a view from members of the community that the board had rushed the new proposal.

“We have done exactly what you have elected us to do, and you guys are geniuses for electing us,” he said to the spirited and good-humored audience.

The school will be paid for through a 20-year bond with a fixed principal of $900,000 per year. The board is planning on 5 percent interest on the bond, costing taxpayers $1.27 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for the first year, 2005-06; $3.66 per $1,000 during 2006-07, which is the proposed startup date for the school, and then declining over the next three years. The tax rate figures also take into account 30 percent state building aid.

The article requires 60 percent of the vote on March 8 to pass.

Nearly half of the audience dispersed after the middle school presentation, which was followed by discussion of the town’s $9.2 million operating budget and a tribute to Michele Josefiak, who finished up her three-year term on the board.

Josefiak, who will soon be moving to Warner, said she witnessed unbelievable support by the community for the middle school proposal at the Tuesday meeting, her last as a board member.

“I do think that it’s going to pass,” she said. “I think the town knows there is a need for the building and I think it will meet the needs of the community.”