School Board eyes 2010 for high school project

The School Board hopes to start planning for the reconstruction and expansion of Laconia High School in 2008-2009 with an eye to beginning the renovation of the Huot Technical Center in 2010-2011, when the center becomes eligible for assistance from the state.

School Superintendent Bob Champlin told the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Committee last night that "we have to have an approved project for the state to consider by 2010," explaining that without it the district could forego state aid amounting to 75-percent of the cost the project for ten years or more.

Joe Cormier, chairman of the School Board, said that the district was requesting $100,000 in the 2008-2009 budget for "a year of planning and a year of design. If we don't start now, the chances of missing that 2010 date will be high."

When City Councilor Bob Hamel (Ward 5) asked if the renovation of the Huot Technical Center could be undertaken as the first phase of a larger project to renovate and expand the high school, Champlin replied "yes."

City Councilor Henry Lipman (Ward 3) suggested that the committee weigh the finances against the timing of the project by considering "the debt capacity within the budget structure.

Hamel said that after reviewing the debt schedule, City Manager Eileen Cabanel has estimated that the city would not be able to service the borrowings required to undertake a major project before 2015.

Champlin again reminded the committee that the state has scheduled the Huot Technical Center for 2010-2011. "We've told the state that we'd like to do something," he said, adding that if the district could not fund a project in 2010-2011, it would lose it place in the queue for state aid. "You use it or you lose it," he said.

Again we're not trying to build anything here," Cormier said, stressing that the $100,000 that the district requested was to develop a conceptual plan for the high school project. He said that the School Board worked successfully with the City Council on the reconstruction of Memorial Middle School and looked forward to "engaging the City Council, sitting down together and mapping out the options."

Cormier emphasized the high school posed a number of challenges, especially the size and configuration of the site in light of the need for parking lots and playing fields. At the same time, he said that the project could offer opportunities for the community, including improvements to city parks and a performing arts center as part of the high school.

The school district also requested $200,000 to replace the roof at Elm Street School, which was not part of the last round of improvements to the building, and more than $100,000 to repair the windows and roof replace the boiler of the SAU building on Harvard Street .