By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Allenstown Elementary School Principal Theresa Kenny shows off the school’s original boilers, which would be replaced if voters approve a $3.4 million renovation and expansion plan at the March 14 vote.

School officials, presenting a $3.4 million bond for improvements to Allenstown Elementary School, are hoping to avoid a third strike.

Similar versions of the plan have come up just nine and seven votes shy of the required two-thirds majority over the last two years.

“This is something that the majority of the town supports,” Allenstown School Board Chairman Tom Irzyk said after the district’s deliberative session.

Yet considering fluctuating fuel costs, a healthy population of elderly and people on fixed incomes, and the common concern over climbing tax bills, it’s unclear whether voters will push the multimillion proposal over the edge.

“At the end of the day, it’s just something the voters are going to have to decide,” said school board member Jason Carrier.

Considering the proposal’s recent failures, the school board decided to start anew after last year’s vote, endorsing a committee composed of people from throughout the community.

Nine people in the 10-member committee voted to move forward with a plan to expand AES, while one abstained.

Of those nine, six supported the current proposal, while the other three voted to offer an even larger expansion.

For many people working in Allenstown’s two schools, renovations are long overdue. The school was originally constructed in 1962, and added to immensely in 1972. And while student population seems to have leveled off, school officials say state-mandated programming and special education requirements demand more space.

“There are people out there who think we don’t need to add because our population isn’t up around 500 or 600 kids,” said Allenstown Elementary School Principal Theresa Kenny. “But we’re maxed out.”

The $3.4 million proposal would add nearly 17,000 square feet to the elementary school, in the form of 13 new instructional rooms, basement storage space, and an expanded kitchen area. The media room/library would also be expanded as the school’s computers – used for standardized testing – would fit into a separate room.

The elementary school expansion would allow Armand Dupont fifth-graders to return to AES, which would free up critical programming space at the middle school.

“The two big things we’re trying to do are expand our programs, and bring those fifthgraders back over,” said Kenny.

The plan would also eliminate the numerous undersized classrooms at Allenstown Elementary, and reduce the number of rooms currently being used ad-hoc by special education and special program instructors.

AES Title I reading specialist Rikki Bornstein, for example, works out of a small corner of a classroom she shares with a music instructor. She formerly shared a space with other Title I instructors.

“It was wonderful when all the reading people could share a space, and we could collaborate and feed off one another,” said Bornstein. “I have a nice little nook here, but I’m not connected with the other reading people.”

Another goal of the school renovation and expansion plan is to get the building up to state standards. Currently, none of the bathrooms in the building – including the one in the nurse’s office – are handicapped accessible.

One of two nurses for Allenstown’s schools, Denise Schmidt, said the cramped layout of the 40-year-old nurse’s room only adds undue challenges to treating sick children, who often have to compete for the two cots and have little privacy in the small, attached bathroom.

“It can get very difficult when you’ve got kids in here and you need to make a confidential phone call,” said Schmidt.

Projecting an interest rate of 4.5 percent, school officials estimate that the tax impact would be at its highest – at $1.05 per $1,000 of assessed valuation – in the second year of a 10-year bond.

Under that scenario, the owner of a $200,000 home would pay an additional $204 in the year of the bond’s highest impact.

Election day is Tuesday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Allenstown Elementary School.