Bond prevents sale of John Fuller, for now

CONWAY — At its first meeting the Conway School Board’s 11-member John Fuller School Action Ad-Hoc Committee was greeted with a bombshell — the now closed K-6 school in North Conway Village can not be sold for at least three years because the Conway School District is committed to a HVAC bond that cannot be paid off until 2028.

“We were dropped with a bomb in my opinion,” Steve Porter, the selectmen’s representative to the committee who attended the Dec. 4 meeting, told the Sun last week.

“The district still has 10 years (of a 20-year) bond to pay off. We were told we could not sell the school for three years. According to the bond (agreement), you cannot sell or technically close the building,” Porter said.

Porter, a John Fuller graduate, added: “This was sold to the public as a cost-saving move, but it’s going to cost us to keep the building open. … I’m in awe of the ineptitude of the SAU 9 office and the Conway School Board. For them to think that we have deep pockets and that you can close John Fuller and we’ll keep paying, it’s wrong.”

Schools Superintendent Aimee Frechette confirmed Thursday that the district does have a bond commitment.

“You can’t even pay it off early until it reaches 10 years which will be in 2028,” she said by phone. “We have to decide what we want to do in the meantime.”

Serving on the committee are school board members Amy Snow, Melanie Lebel and Matt Stearns; selectmen’s representative Porter (John Colbath is an alternate); the planning board’s representative Ben Colbath (Eliza Grant is an alternate); and the budget committee’s representative Bob Drinkhall (Ellin Leonard is the alternate); Josh Brustin from the Mount Washington Valley Housing Coalition; Brittany Hodge, who is representing the elementary school PTOs; and three citizens who applied to get seats on the committee — Alex Loth, Jac Cuddy and Harrison Kanzler — and were selected by the school board.

Despite the school district’s recommendation to close Pine Tree School, the school board on April 17 voted unanimously to close John H. Fuller Elementary School instead.

The decision to close one of the town’s three elementary schools was made Jan. 22, when the board voted 5-2 (Michaela Clement and Stearns opposed) to close a school and to move the sixth grade to Kennett Middle School by the 2025-26 school year.

The time frame was expedited by the April 9 vote that saw the district’s operating budget of $40,109,103 defeated by 876-859, triggering the default budget of $39,002,004.

Lebel requested a recount of the article, but it did not change the vote. The article failed 877-859.

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The administration team of Superintendent Kevin Richard, Assistant Superintendent Aimee Frechette, Kennett High Principal Kevin Carpenter; Kennett Middle School Principal Rick Biche, Conway Elementary, Principal Katy Bedley, Pine Tree Elementary Principal Sara Lewis, MWV Career and Technical Center Director Virginia Schrader, SAU 9 Director of Special Services Pam Stimpson, SAU 9 Director of Budget and Finance Michael Wade and SAU 9 Director of Administrative Services Jim Hill worked to craft a consolidation plan that centered on closing Pine Tree and making John Fuller a K-2 school, Conway Elementary a grade 3-5 school and Kennett Middle a grade 6-8 school.

Board members chose to shutter John Fuller and keep Pine Tree open despite Hill pointing out the Center Conway based school lacked town water and sewage, had driveway issues and roofing problems.

“I guess we have limited options now,” Porter, who shared the news with Conway selectmen at this Dec. 9 meeting, said. “We can offer it to a charter school or lease it to a 501(c) (nonprofit organization), but on the flip side, you have a building that needs major repairs. We were told that realistically there’s not a lot we can do with it for the next three years.”

He added: “The question needs to be asked, why close John Fuller when we could have closed Pine Tree, which was the SAU’s recommendation? I think the decision was made purely based on personal opinion after some people used the master plan to say that Center Conway and East Conway are the most likely places for town growth. In the best case scenario, we won’t get town water and sewer there for at least 10 to 15 years.”

Porter said the committee “is handcuffed” by what it can and can’t do with the John Fuller site for at least three years.

“I think the school board chose the wrong school,” he said, wondering if Pine Tree, now Lakeside Primary School, could be closed and John Fuller reopened.

“I think that would be incredibly disruptive for the students, who are finally settling into a new routine,” said Frechette.

She added: “We have to make a plan moving forward and the makeup of the (committee) is very good. I think good work will come out of this.”

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