New School Project Cost is Virtually Identical to WHS

The following is part 4 of an analysis of Windham Schools

The Windham Taxpayers Coalition (www.WindhamTaxpayers.org) believes our community must support our schools and provide excellent educational opportunities for our children.  We also believe that our government officials must be good stewards of our tax dollars.

This is the fourth in a series of articles that will analyze the needs of our school district. This article will discuss the projected cost of the proposed 7th/8th grade school project to Windham Taxpayers.

To provide a comparison, we decided to use the cost of building the WHS as a reference to put things into perspective… because the WHS project has had a substantial impact on our town’s property taxes, and will for years to come.  When we compared final projected costs to Windham Taxpayers for the WHS and new school project, we found them to be virtually the same.

Click here to view costs for WHS vs. Proposed 7th/8th School

Source data for the graph came from NH State and Adam Steel, WSD Business Admin.  It can be viewed here: http://windhamtaxpayers.org/2013/02/20/an-analysis-of-windham-schools-appendix-b/

In the chart above, the left bar represents the costs for the High School plus interest payments before the town received building aid from the State ($67,609,219).  The middle bar represents the tax burden to Windham taxpayers after we receive building aid from the State ($52,462,130).  The right bar represents the additional tax burden to Windham taxpayers if we approve the proposed 7th/8th grade project ($51,179,375).

Not only is the cost of the new 7th/8th grade project almost identical to the Windham High School – it only provides for half the grades!  And if this project is approved by Windham voters BEFORE July 1, 2013 – it will NOT be eligible to be considered for NH State building aid – so unlike when the WHS was built, the Windham Taxpayers will assume 100% of the cost of this new construction project.

As a town, we have always been very generous with our educational tax dollars.  Our School District has overcrowding problems in some grades -- due to an enrollment bubble that is working its way through our schools... and this problem must be addressed.  But before we continue down this path of limitless requests for spending, we believe it would be prudent to first have a well thought out and comprehensive vision in place that provides solutions to ALL of our needs.  Only then, can we properly plan to spend our tax dollars wisely.

Our school board has publicly stated there is still more construction that is necessary in our other schools, even if this 7th/8th grade school is built… and the tax impact to build the new school does not include the additional costs to staff, operate, and maintain it.

Is the proposal to build another school the best option?  Should it be presented to voters two years in a row after being soundly rejected in 2012?  Please do your research and get informed so that you will truly be in a position to cast an informed vote on March 12, 2013.

The Windham Taxpayers Coalition