Voters reject new school, land; Officials say sluggish economy played a role

By John Basilesco
Staff Writer

March 12, 2008 12:07 pm

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PELHAM — Voters yesterday overwhelmingly rejected plans to build a new high school on Windham Road and turn the old high school into a middle school for seventh- and eighth-graders.

The proposal, which required a 60 percent majority to pass, failed outright. The vote was 2,375 to 1,580 against the plans.

Voters also said no to spending $3 million to buy 48 acres of land on Windham Road to build the new high school. That article, too, required 60 percent approval, but it didn't come close. The vote was 2,210 opposed to the purchase and just 1,755 in favor.

"I don't think disappointment sums up how I feel," high school principal Dorothy Mohr said. "Certainly, my job just got even much more difficult. This certainly is a sad day for Pelham education. I was hopefully optimistic that voters would at least see that Pelham High School education was at risk."

Crowded conditions already exist at the school, which has six portable classrooms outside the main building, Mohr said.

School Board Chairman Bruce Couture said he was hoping voters would at least approve buying the 48 acres on Windham Road as a school site. Yesterday's vote against that takes the land off the table as a site for a new high school, he said.

Couture said school officials will now have to re-examine all the options, which include school additions and creating additional classroom space at the old Sherburne School on Marsh Road, which now houses the police station and town hall. There's another 10,000 square feet of space still available in that building, Couture said.

"We've got to look at everything now," he said.

Couture and re-elected Selectman William McDevitt both blamed the votes against the new school and renovations to the existing high school in part on the weakening economy.

"I think the voters are very fearful of economic conditions," McDevitt said. "I think the numbers on the school side — multi-millions of dollars — scared some people."

The price tag for a new high school and renovations to the existing high school was $44.6 million.

Mohr said school officials have been looking at ways to resolve crowded conditions at Pelham High for a number of years. Four or five years ago, Pelham voters twice rejected a proposal to build a regional high school with Windham.

"We're maxed out," she said of the high school. "We're almost at 99 percent utilization of all space. There's no wiggle room left."