Voters Allowed to Weigh In

By Lloyd Jones
THE CONWAY DAILY SUN
CONWAY — Town voters will be allowed to weigh in on whether one of Conway’s elementary three schools should close.

The Conway School Board voted 6-1 on Monday night to bring a non-binding warrant article to the voters next April, asking if they support closing an elementary school. The board will tinker with the exact wording of the question in the months to come.

The board’s ad hoc facilities use committee voted 3-1-1 earlier this month to recommend closing a school as well as moving the sixth-grade into Kennett Middle School, creating a grade 6-8 campus.

“I think the community should have a say if it wants to close a school,” board member Joe Mosca said Monday night before making a motion for a warrant article to that effect.

“I think the board should make the decision as to what school is closed. I think that’s why we’re elected. We make the tough decision because nobody is going to want to close their school.”

Supporting the motion were Mosca, Cassie Capone, Michelle Capozzoli, Randy Davison, Barbara Lyons and Ryan Wallace, while Jessica Whitelaw was in the minority.

“I would like something sooner than that,” Whitelaw said. “I would like to have a forum or something different. … And I still feel like we haven’t done enough work to (make a decision).”

She added: “It’s not that I think it’s a bad idea. I just don’t want to agree with it.”

Serving on the committee were school board members Michelle Capozzoli, Mosca and Jessica Whitelaw, along with budget committee members Frank Jost and Bill Marvel. Also Superintendent Kevin Richard, Assistant Superintendent Kadie Wilson and SAU 9 Director of Administrative Services Jim Hill and principals Aimee Frechette of Pine Tree School and Rick Biche of Kennett Middle.

Jost, Marvel and Mosca voted to close a school while Capozzoli abstained and Whitelaw opposed closing any of the schools.

Though the committee has 10 members, just the school board and budget committee representatives were the voting members.

Closing a school would save the district up to $1.2 million annually, district officials said.

Marvel and Jost chose Pine Tree School in Center Conway as the one they would like to see closed. Mosca said it should be John H. Fuller Elementary in North Conway.

Conway Elementary, given its location on the same campus as the middle school and the SAU 9 office, has been ruled out as an option for closure.

“I’ll make a motion to put a non-binding article on the warrant for April,” Mosca said. “So we can get the feedback from the voters. And the board will make a decision based on the feedback from the voters.”

“We’re going to work on the wording of it I hope,” Davison said and then offered a second. “I think we’ve done enough studies on it. We need to bring it to the voters and then go from there.”

Davison was referring to school closure committees, which looked into closing an elementary school in 2009, 2012 and 2016 but ultimately did nothing.

In April of 2012, citizens overwhelmingly approved a non-binding referendum for a study on the ramifications of closing an elementary school. Following that, the board sought a proposal for a study, but later scrapped the idea after learning it would cost over $100,000. Instead, the board created a new ad-hoc committee to look at different avenues to pursue a school closing, including moving the sixth grades.

Capozzoli asked if there is any other information the committee wanted before writing the warrant article. There was discussion about having John Fuller and Pine Tree appraised for potential resale values.

“I’m not one to want to spend people’s money, my own ncluded, without knowing what we’re doing,” Mosca said. “If the community decides to close a school, I think that’s when you start looking at real estate.”

“The reason why I abstained (on the school closure vote) is because I didn’t feel that I have enough information,” said Capozzoli. “I’m going into my ninth year on this board, and we have been engaging the community. We had two strategic plans, the portrait of the learner and I do feel that without that piece understanding what our community wants, I don’t feel that we can make a decision.”

Capozzoli added: “I do feel that we should put on a warrant article. We should be asking, ‘Does our community want three schools? Do we want to fund three schools?’ Because that’s really the question, right?”

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