In the 24 Nov. 1999 issue of ORHS Construction News we answered the question about whether the bond vote was legal because the voter turnout was less than 50%. But, the question still remains in the minds of some citizens, and in fact it has been formally filed as a law suit. However, this law suit does not change the opinion of the school district lawyers or administrators that the bond vote is valid.
The law suit was filed in the Strafford County Superior Court on 24 Nov. 1999 by Jere R. Beckman and others. Officials of the OR school district learned about the law suit on Friday, 3 Dec. 1999, but at that time the law suit papers had still not been formally delivered to an ORSD official.
The law suit is based on the laws governing special meetings. A special meeting is a meeting besides the regular annual district meeting. Typically, a special meeting is called by a school board (or by petition) as described in statute RSA 197:2. If a special meeting is called to raise money, then there are additional rules described in statute RSA 197:3. For the typical special meeting, this statute requires at least a 50% voter turnout. But, RSA 197:3 also describes how this requirement can be waived by a superior court. The law suit claims that since no superior court waived this requirement, the 16 Nov. bond vote needed a 50% voter turnout to be valid.
The reason the law suit won't stand up in court is because of another law actually cited in the law suit, HB 111. Part 2.3 of HB 111 is the law that the OR School Board invoked to hold the 16 Nov. bond vote. This law says that a school district can waive the 50% voter turnout requirement of RSA 197:3 without asking a superior court if the purpose of the special meeting is to reconsider a warrant article that failed last March. HB 111 cites the Claremont law suit as the reason for this special waiver.
The confusion probably arises because the language of Part 2.3 of HB 111 is not clear. Here's the text of this law:
2:3 Special School District and Town Meetings Authorized. A school board may call a special school district meeting under RSA 197:3, without court approval, and a town may call a special town meeting under RSA 31:5, without court approval, to address any issues raised by resolution of the Claremont lawsuit. This authority shall expire no later than December 31, 1999.
This doesn't mention money articles, but RSA 197:3 only deals with money articles, so that is implied by this reference. This also doesn't mention the 50% turnout requirement of RSA 197:3, but the only reason for court approval is to waive the 50% requirement. So, the phrase "without court approval" implies the 50% requirement is also waived. It's confusion like this that keeps lawyers employed.
The trial date for this suit is scheduled for 20 Dec.
The bonds for the ORHS project were sold by the New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank on 2 Dec. The paper work to close the sale is being processed and will be completed on 9 Dec. The money from the bonds will be given to ORSD on 15 or 16 Dec.
The effective rate for the bond is 5.59% over its 20 year life. That is almost a full percentage point above the estimated bond rate back in Mar. 1999. That full percentage point means more than $1/2 million in extra taxes must be paid by ORSD tax payers over the life of the bond.
The permit process started on 23 Nov. when Bob Berry, ORSD Business Administrator, and representatives from the architect, Team Design Inc, and the site engineer, AppleDore Engineering met with Skip Grady, Durham Director for Public Works and his engineer, Bob Levesque. This was a good opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves to each other. They also discussed some details of how Durham handles permits and a few concerns about the site plan such as the number of road cuts.
The next meeting to continue this process will be on 16 Dec. In addition to all those who met on 23 Nov., this meeting will include School Board members, Chris Cairns, Principal at ORHS and George Bailey, Director of Facilities for ORSD and representatives from MacMillan Construction, Durham Planning, Police, and Fire. This meeting will explore more details with the permit process and site plan in particular.
The site plan to be discussed at the 16 Dec. meeting will be presented to the School Board and public on Tue., 14 Dec. at 7:00 at ORHS. An alternative site plan is emerging. This alternative saves money by not blasting as much ledge and cuts fewer trees. The key feature is to run the bus loop road right behind the new school building instead of running it in front. The savings come from the bus loop being at a higher grade than the parking lot in front. Ensuring that playing fields will not be impacted is the key remaining question.
On 1 Dec., the footprint of Phase I, which is the 2 new classroom wings, and the specific uses of the rooms in those wings were agreed to at a meeting with the building at ORHS. The ORHS team met with Team Design Inc. to discuss possible changes to the plans after reviewing them one last time. The results of this meeting are now being turned into final drawings needed to send out bids. This level of drawings for the rest of the building will be done between now and next Spring.
The next meeting at ORHS will be on 8 Dec. to discuss the phasing plans for the project with teachers and administrators. These plans are developed by Blair Townsend of MacMillan Construction. He is the Project Manager for ORHS. The phasing plans set the schedule for when parts of the project will be done. Since these plans determine the impact the construction project will have on the day-to-day operation of the school, it is critical these plans factor in the needs of the teachers and administrators.
At this meeting, the new Job Superintendent, Paul "Nappy" Napierkoski will be introduced to the ORHS team. Nappy is the person from MacMillan Construction who will be in charge of the job site and be there throughout the project. He is the on site point of contact for school and district people. He is also the key person responsible for the coordination of the subcontractors on site and the quality of the work.
By now you know that there was a fire in the wood shop of ORHS at about 11:30 p.m. on 1 Dec. This fire destroyed the wood shop and closed school the following Thursday and Friday. This fire also displaces one teacher and about 75 students.
Fortunately, the fire was contained to the wood shop, thanks to the quick response of the Durham Police and Fire Departments. But, the fire was very hot and overheated the roof trusses so the room is no longer safe. As a result it will need to be demolished and a new wood shop built. Insurance will cover the cost of rebuilding the shop.
Since the bond was passed, we can rebuild the wood shop according to the new plans. The plans call for the old wood shop to be demolished and a new stage for the auditorium to be built in its place. The new wood shop would be added to the rear of the stage. The original phasing plans called for the wood shop to be part of the last phase. But, since a new wood shop is now urgently needed, the phasing is being reconsidered. Team Design Inc., MacMillan Construction, and Rist-Frost-Schumway, the mechanical and structural engineers, are all busy rethinking this part of the plan.
One possible idea is to demolish the burnt out wood shop and build the shell of the auditorium stage in its place. Then we could start on the new wood shop so it might be ready for next September. Instead of one of the last rooms, the wood shop would be one of the first rooms, maybe starting construction in January. One advantage of this plan is the building power plant can be relocated from the rear classroom wing to the new shop area. This move makes the power more available for work on the new gym and art classrooms so they may be moved up in the schedule as well.
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Last update on 4-Dec-99 at 12:17 AM.
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This page is edited by David K. Taylor. Please send questions or comments to editor@orol.org.