WINDHAM – Following seven months of deliberation, a school board subcommittee staffed by top district officials has recommended that Regional School Unit 14 construct a new middle school in Windham.

The proposed new school would replace the aging Windham Middle School. According to Marge Govoni, a member of the Middle School Facility Advisory Committee and the new chairwoman of the RSU 14 Board of Directors, construction of the new school, if approved at a future referendum, could cost between $32 million and $42 million, not including interest.

Govoni said district officials do not expect the state to contribute any money toward a potential construction effort since the state ranks the middle school low on its list of priority reconstruction projects. School officials have been told by the state that it could be more than a decade before the middle school would qualify for state aid. Local taxpayers in Windham and Raymond, therefore, would fund the project solely. Any project would first need voter approval.

The advisory committee’s recommendation, submitted on June 4, consists of three core concepts. Option 1 would be to renovate the Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond and build a new middle school exclusively for Windham students on the school campus in Windham Center. Option 2 calls for a new consolidated middle school for Windham and Raymond students on the Windham campus. Option 3 includes a consolidated middle school on the Windham campus, as well as renovation and expansion of Raymond Elementary School.

The 17-member advisory committee, which includes Superintendent Sandy Prince, the district’s two middle school principals, and four RSU 14 directors, met for the first time on Oct. 17. The committee’s charge is to “investigate and consider” additions or renovations to the RSU 14 middle schools, as well as to “compare any proposed changes to the existing middle schools to that of a new, consolidated middle school that supports high-performing, middle-level educational programming in an efficient and cost-effective manner.”

At the board’s June 4 meeting, Catriona Sangster, a member of the advisory committee and the departing chairwoman of the board, presented the recommendations on behalf of the committee. Sangster suggested that the board schedule a non-binding advisory referendum on the proposed middle school at the November elections, in order to give the public an early chance to weigh in on the matter. She also recommended that the board schedule workshops in the fall and solicit input from school staff.

Although the committee considered several other options, including renovating the existing Windham Middle School and purchasing property for a new middle school, Govoni said the board is not likely to consider non-recommended alternatives.

“It’s going to be pretty much those three, unless somebody has an epiphany,” Govoni said.

The recommendation could prove controversial in Raymond, where a group of residents has initiated a petition drive to withdraw from the school district. Theresa Sadak, a Raymond selectwoman and advocate of Raymond’s withdrawal from the district, said she collected petition signatures for withdrawal outside the Raymond polling place Tuesday. Sadak said the withdrawal advocates have nearly collected the 227 signatures necessary to force a referendum on withdrawal.

“We are at our wits’ end,” Sadak said. “They just literally keep pushing it more and more toward a new school.”

According to Assistant Superintendent Donn Davis, who sits on the new advisory committee, the Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond has 188 students, with a capacity of 350 students, while the Windham Middle School has 593 students, with a capacity of 483 students. Approximately 160 overflow students attend the Field Allen School.

According to an executive facilities planning summary composed by Davis, the Windham Middle School, which is more than 30 years old, has “small,” 635 square-foot classrooms, and is “not a particularly well-built building, with poor energy and engineering features.” The Raymond schools “have a low utilization rate because of declining populations,” according to the summary, which projects that the size of the Raymond student body will decline from 602 in 2013 to 510 in 2022.

According to the summary, in 2010, the RSU 14 school board recommended closing the Manchester School and Jordan-Small Middle School, but decided against the recommendation “after ample public participation.”

“However, there was informal School Board consensus that strategic planning for district facilities would need to be pursued to determine future recommendations of this nature,” the summary reads.

The subcommittee’s recommendation also includes scenarios to further restructure the school district. Option 1A would move fifth-graders from the Manchester School to a new grades 5-8 Windham middle school. It would also move third-graders from Windham Primary School to the Manchester School and would add a new pre-kindergarten class at the primary school.

“In Windham we’re going to take all the grades and slide them up one,” Govoni said, referring to the scenario. “It’s the domino effect.”

Option 3 would expand Raymond Elementary School from K-4 to pre-K-6. The Manchester School would become grades 3-4, and a new middle school on the Windham campus would hold Windham fifth- and sixth-graders, as well as all district seventh- and eighth-graders. The Windham fifth and sixth grades would be educated in a self-contained wing – or “pod” – within the new middle school, which would be located on the existing Windham campus.

Govoni said that although the proposals sound sweeping and complex, they could provide benefits to the district. Yet she expects resistance to the recommendations, especially from Raymond residents. Govoni said that a forthcoming modification of the district’s cost-sharing formula could help soften opposition.

“That will be the driver on whether they support us or not,” Govoni said.

Either way, Govoni said that Raymond ought to stay in the district.

“No matter what we do, I think it’s advantageous that Raymond stay as part of the consolidation,” Govoni said. “I think there’s a benefit to the students, there’s a benefit to the staff and there’s also a benefit to the residents of Raymond.”