BOSC Finance and Facilities Committee voices concerns over draft study

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Locations of the four elementary schools the study proposed closing

MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Wednesday night, the Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) Committee on Finance and Facilities took a first look at a recently released draft study recommending the closure of four Manchester elementary schools, with much more discussion to come if Wednesday was any indication.

In the three-and-a-half hour special meeting, committee members peppered representatives from MGT consulting group on a draft report (see below) recommending the closure of four elementary schools, the merger of two other elementary schools, the construction of a brand-new elementary school and an early-age learning center and the renovation of two high schools.

According to the consultants, the renovations and new schools would be paid for by cost savings incurred by the lack of deferred maintenance and utility costs that would no longer be needed at the four proposed schools to be closed: Hallsville, Gossler Park, Smyth Road and Wilson.

The proposal to close the four schools and build or renovate other schools came from two points. The first point was a significant decline in enrollment throughout the district and the other stemmed from the age of the schools, which the consultants believed was economically inefficient and limited educational capacity.

BOSC members at the meeting cast some skepticism parts of the first claim beginning with Arthur Beaudry (Ward 9). Beaudry noted 2018 study from Fred Matuszewski of CMK Architects that provided the seemingly contradictory information that city’s elementary schools are overcrowded, spurring efforts to put fifth-grade students into the city’s middle schools.

Dr. Nicole Leapley (Ward 11) also questioned the assertion that the city’s elementary schools are overcrowded, given that school arts and music programs in the city often do not have space of their own and operate off carts.

Beaudry also questioned the efficacy of renovating the high schools in the face of declining enrollment there, an area where the MGT study agreed with the Matuszewski study. He believed that with nearby towns unlikely to send their students to Manchester schools again, the only likely path to reversing the downward enrollment trend was to convince the hundreds of home school and charter school students across the city to return to Manchester Public Schools.

The MGT consultants indicated that building an entirely new high school that served the entire city would cost approximately $300 million and two brand-new high schools would cost somewhere between $100 and $200 million.

Ideally, they said that a city with Manchester’s demographic makeup should have one early-age learning center, approximately eight elementary schools, approximately three to four middle schools and two high schools.

Other BOSC members also voiced concern and skepticism with what appeared to be oversights in the study, such as unclear methodology when it came to assessing school technological needs, transportation impacts and not taking different space needs for special need students.

Jim O’Connell (At-Large) believed that renovation and reinvestment in schools would tackle the issue of enrollment, retaining often transient families who come to Manchester and then leave for other nearby towns. Renovation and construction of new schools would be vital to this recruitment effort in order to keep up with nearby cities constructing new schools such as Nashua and Concord, stating that people in Manchester will support bold new polices that appear to provide value to the city, but not incremental approaches.

At the start of the meeting, Superintendent Dr. John Goldhardt offered a review of the process of contracting with MGT and the work the consultant did to create the draft report. Dr. Goldhardt also laid out the next steps in the process, including three upcoming community engagement sessions – on Jan. 5, Jan. 7 and Jan. 11. The district will share more details on those sessions in the coming days.

He also voiced concern about social media posts from private schools informing parents that their schools will be closed, noting that the recommendations are just the beginning of a long process.

“After all is done and said, and we have the final report, district administration will make recommendations for the Board, and the Board will then choose to adopt, reject, or choose something different,” Goldhard said. “These types of studies always bring stress.  This is not easy for anyone – including the Board and district and school administration.”

 

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.