New school plans evolve

By Sally Lee,  rockinghamnews@seacoastonline.com

RAYMOND — Town leaders, educators and parents mobilized on Wednesday evening as members of the newly formed Raymond School Building Committee.

The 26-member committee elected Bob Carlberg, the president of Raymond's Concerned Citizen's for a Safe Environment, as their chairman while former educator, selectman and School Board member Sally Paradis was selected to be the vice-chairman.

Last week the School Board charged the volunteer committee with the task of developing a plan to provide Raymond students with safe, healthy, efficient school buildings through building, rehabilitating or expanding the existing facilities. The board has requested that the committee submit a written report back to them by September.

Several members of Raymond's educational community were on hand including Gove Middle School Principal Steve LeShane, Lamprey River Elementary School Vice Principal Emilie Smith and former board member and current Gove School special education teacher Steve Wallerstein. Others with an educational background include residents Lorrie O'Connor, school counselor; Susan Spinney, teacher; and School Board representative Peg Louis, a former teacher. Community leaders present included state Sen. Jack Barnes, Planning Board chair and state Rep. Stephen Sloan, Board of Selectman Chair Richard Ladd and Town Manager Rick Bates.

The committee agreed to meet weekly on Wednesday nights while they organize initially and have listed among their first priorities touring both the elementary and middle school and gathering public input on the issue.

Sloan advocated an outreach effort in order to "find out what the community wants."

"We have to get a clear idea of what's needed," he said. "In the past we have never been able to pass a school (building project) without full community involvement. The plan presented over the past two years lacked that. It was handed down from on high with a 'take it or leave it' attitude and guess what ... we left it. We need to create a community vision of where we are and where we are going, unless we get the community spirit we will not produce what is needed," he said.

Sen. Barnes commended the residents for having banned together to support the building of the current high school, the Safety Complex and the library expansion.

"We're not cheap in Raymond we're smart. We want to make sure things are right before we spend our money on it," he said. Barnes also indicated that a new proposal before the senate to solve the state's school funding issue is imminent and he feels that it is one that should "please the majority."

The committee discussed the need to verify demographic figures that show Raymond's school population on the decrease in spite of an increase in the overall town population. Carlberg noted that expanding by too much or not enough could be a critical error.

"We have to go back to square one and look at everything. This won't be done overnight. It is something the town needed two years ago. Let's not spin our wheels, there's been enough wheels spun," Carlberg said.

Sloan advocated that the project welcome the involvement of valuable local resources such as Ladd, who offered his expertise as a surveyor to the project; also the expertise of local construction company president Ed Jewett, and Coastal Materials Manager Dennis Lydon.