6/7/2022 - School Board Workshop

Long Range Facilities Master Planning

2022 - 2023 Facilities Master Planning Process

Update: April 6, 2022

In the Spring of 2022, the district will move into the next phases of the development of a Facilities Master Plan. This plan will come out of a series of steps in which a subcommittee of the original Facilities Study Committee engaged with representatives from the Trident Group and LBA Architects to evaluate the current conditions and use of all school district buildings. From this process, the School Board and district will establish priorities for potential projects going forward. Further details will be posted in the coming weeks.

The Board will be re-charging a Facilities Master Planning Committee at their April 19 regular meeting.

The next step will be a presentation from LBA at a Board work session on Thursday, May 12 at 6:00 PM in the LHS Cafeteria.

Facilities Study Committee Re-Charged:

The Committee will continue on with our work, focusing on the development of a School Facilities 10 Year Master Plan. As an element of that plan, the group will also develop a proposed solution to the space needs at Moose Hill School in a manner consistent with the previous work of the FSC.

Click here to view the Fall 2019 Facilities Study Committee Report to the School Board.

2019 Official Student Enrollment Count: October 1

Click this link to view the entire text of the NHSAA Study

Click this link to view the updated enrollment information from NHSAA Study 2018

Click this link to learn more about the history of enrollment in the LEEP Program

When Moose Hill School opened in 2001, it housed 9 classrooms for half day Kindergarten and two classrooms for the Londonderry Early Education Program, or LEEP, which is a federally-funded preschool program. This program supports students who have been identified with disabilities, as well as a group of 'typical' students. The enrollment in LEEP is 50% special education and 50% non-identified, as is required by regulations governing these programs. Non- identified students pay tuition to attend, and are selected by a lottery. Identified students attend free of charge, which is also required, and supported by the federal funding.

While the number of kindergarten classrooms has decreased to 8, the enrollment of the LEEP Program has increased dramatically over the years. Room use is illustrated on the charts below, with kindergarten rooms in green, and LEEP Classrooms in blue.

Can a second floor be added on Moose Hill School?

Questions have arisen regarding the possibility of a second floor being added at Moose Hill School. The main (North) wing of the building has been designed for that purpose. That said, there are regulations regarding location of primary aged students on upper floors of a school building. Click here to view a scanned copy of these regulations.

Part of our work will include the development of an option for reorganizing existing grade configurations in all schools grades K-5, in order to develop a solution to impending increases in enrollment and space needs in all three of our elementary schools. As has been discussed in detail, the District has expanded the offerings of in-house programs for our students with more acute special education needs, resulting in both an improvement of services and a considerable savings to the Londonderry taxpayer. At present, our in-District programs occupy a total of seven full-sized classrooms. We also support our music and art programs maintaining their own learning space, which occupies two classrooms at each of the three elementary schools. As we grow, each of these rooms must be accounted for in our calculation of functional capacity, or be re-purposed to accommodate regular classrooms.

The result of this use of space, and the increasing enrollment in our elementary aged population, require us to consider possible reconfiguration to maximize the use of existing space independently of possible expansion of the Moose Hill School, or of any of the three elementary schools in the District in order to insure the community that all possibilities are being considered adequately.

The fourth item for consideration is a contingency plan that will address the possibility that any proposal for building expansion or reconfiguration may not be supported by the voters. Such an outcome would not absolve the District of a responsibility to accommodate all resident children in our existing facilities. Options to consider and develop could include:

The use of additional modular or temporary classroom space

The increasing of maximum class sizes

The re-purposing of existing instructional space used for Art, Music, and the Library at Moose Hill School.

Other options that may be recommended by the Committee not identified as of yet.

Ultimately, the objective of this outcome is to state clearly the possible accommodations that would be necessary should no action be taken by the Board or by the voters.

Available Options for Increasing Functional Capacity Without Additional Permanent Building Space

The following options are available to the District to increase the functional capacity of the school buildings without adding additional permanent physical space .

• • Re purposing existing space to classroom and instructional support, such as library/media space, computer labs, art and music classrooms, administrative or conference space, or any other classrooms or space committed to purposes other than direct instruction. (i.e. reading , math enrichment, etc.)

  • Extending District minimum class sizes to accommodate additional students. (Current class size guidelines are 20 students for Grades K-2 and 25 for Grades 3-5. State maximums are 25 students in Grades K-2 and 30 in Grades 3-5.)

  • Locating additional modular classrooms at each school. Potential sites for each school are illustrated by the shaded areas in the aerial photos above.

  • Redistricting existing school or AM/PM areas, if doing so alleviates an imbalance in student distribution.