Submitted by Bob Slater, School Board Chairman
Article 2 Special Article- Full Day Kindergarten & District Office Project
We would like to share with our community what the School Board and Administration have been working on to implement full day kindergarten and find a permanent home for the District Office, replacing the existing lease. Last March, we proposed putting two additions onto Moose Hill to address the space needs and add full day Kindergarten for a cost of $34 million.
The voters spoke on voting day, and we heard you: we received 54% support for space needs and 50% support for space for full day kindergarten. We respect the voters, and we understood from all the feedback that our ask was too costly. So, we went back to work in April, May, and June, looked at 5 different options. We want the voters to know we received a lot of different feedback, from many individuals who are impacted in different ways, and we considered this in every decision. The decision was not an easy one to make. Ultimately, we narrowed it down to the project that will be on the ballot on March 11th.
When the Superintendent presented to the Board that some room opened up in North School and South School due to lower enrollment for a couple of classrooms, it opened up other potential solutions with regard to providing Londonderry students full-day Kindergarten, while addressing a high-cost District Office lease.
The project we decided on is to add modular buildings at each elementary school to allow for the additional classrooms to add full day kindergarten and move to a K-5 elementary school model in Londonderry. By adding a total of 8 modular units to each elementary school (2 at North, 2 at South, and 4 at Matthew Thornton), this opens enough space at Moose Hill to maintain the LEEP program and house District Office – eliminating the lease payment at Kitty Hawk.
This is a major shift for our employees and students, but ultimately, we feel this will benefit our students educationally in better preparing them for 1st grade, and if passed, it will also save our taxpayers money after year 3. This project also gives the district at least 10 years to monitor enrollment moving forward.
These modular units are well-built and have a life expectancy of 40 plus years. They will have brick siding to match our buildings. If approved, the district would have about 17 months to install units and plan logistics surrounding the implementation of full day Kindergarten for the 2026/27 school year. The goal would be to make this move as seamless as possible for all, and bring the wonderful Moose Hill kindergarten environment into each one of our elementary buildings.
Let’s look at the cost of this project that will provide young learners full day kindergarten, as well as take care of space for district office, with a cost savings over the years:
- The price tag is a little over $9 million for the entire project, compared to the $34 million proposed last year that did not address the District Office.
- The bond would be for 15 years at a rate of 3.46% at $759k per year, and the Superintendent would be looking to add 2 additional teachers as well at a cost of $183k per year.
- If approved, we would create some cost savings to offset the bond costs.
- Yearly savings on mid-day buses for would be approximately $283k, as half day runs would not be needed.
- Yearly savings on district office lease would be 263k.
- By implementing full day Kindergarten, we would receive full adequacy for our kindergarten students, which is an additional $2219 per student per year for approximately 200 students, resulting in $443,800 in savings.
- By year 3 of the bond, we are estimating a SAVINGS of $47k to our taxpayers, with this savings increasing each year after as the bond gets paid down.
We wanted to share this important information with our community in hopes that you will support Article 2. If you have any questions regarding this project or Warrant Article 2, please contact any School Board member or email Schoolboard@londonderry.org
Sincerely,
Londonderry School Board