By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

SAU 19 Superintendent of Schools Darrell Lockwood will present a site plan for a kindergarten to the Goffstown Planning Board on Thursday, Aug. 11.

The board held a final public hearing for a proposed two-lot subdivision to be transferred to the school district at its July 14 meeting, at which several abutters showed up to voice opposition. Lockwood responded to letters from abutters to local newspapers and said "scurrilous information" is being distributed to residents. The superintendent agreed to meet with the board on Aug. 11 to discuss the site plan for the school.

Planning Board Chairman Richard Georgantas reminded the crowded room that the hearing was a courtesy call on behalf of the school district.

"The town's legal council has verified what we already thought - this is an informational hearing only, not a public hearing," he said. "It is only as a courtesy to let us know what (the district) is doing. Anything we have to say is unbinding. This hearing is not for a school, but for a subdivision of a lot. We all know it is for a school, but are only going to talk about a subdivision. They have the right to do whatever they want without our approval."

Engineer Doug Brodeur gave a brief presentation and said the kindergarten will rest on 8.14 acres of the 25.79-acre Glen Lake site. Lockwood said the current plan is to expand the school in 2011 and that information about the potential expansion could be presented at the Aug. 11 meeting.

Planning board member and abutter Collis Adams said he thought the board was not following proper procedure in terms of not questioning the use of the lot for which the subdivision would be granted and the process by which the site for the kindergarten has been selected.

"With all due respect, this board, when looking at a subdivision, has routinely looked at what the use of a lot would be," he said. "What is creating angst in the community is that we are not following the (correct) process. Before land is sold or acquired, you must come to the planning board and the conservation commission to get permission. After soliciting their comments, there must be two public hearings where you hear comments from the public. We've turned the process upside down, took (the transfer of land to the school district) it to the voters and decided it there."

Adams was also upset that the kindergarten and the expansion of the school into a full elementary school were not being presented all at once.

Lockwood, 51, said the process of building a kindergarten in town has not been a rushed process and that, in fact, the idea was first presented in 1971, when the superintendent was a senior in high school. He said that the highest level of authority is a town vote. If 50 or more resident voters sign a petition and present it to the town's selectmen prior to the selectmen's vote, an article must be presented on the town warrant for the annual Town Meeting, which is how the transfer of the Glen Lake property to the school district made it onto the warrant in March.

In the 1997 Goffstown master plan, the Glen Lake property was described as a site that could possibly be used for park space or an elementary school. Lockwood said he received a letter from New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Assistant Commissioner Michael Walls, in which Walls said the Glen Lake property would be used for a public purpose if a public kindergarten were built there.

Lockwood said several abutters have expressed concerns about wetlands setbacks. He said those opposed to the kindergarten site have determined local setbacks and applied them to the state. However, there are no state setbacks, he said. Lockwood also said abutter Collis Adams signed the 1997 master plan, in which the Glen Lake property is listed as a site that could house a kindergarten.

Lockwood said he wants to dispel the idea that there are better sites for the school in town.

"What I am concerned about is the notion that there is another plan for another school (site)," he said. "Our engineers on this project said that (the Glen Lake property) can accommodate a 500-pupil elementary school. It will be tight, but there will be plenty of green space."

Lockwood has said he hopes construction on the kindergarten will be finished by late July or early August 2006 and that the school will open in September of that year. He said ground could be broken as early as late August or early September 2005.

Discussion about the subdivision for the school was cut off at about 9:30 p'm. at the July 14 meeting due to time constraints. Adams asked if the board would reschedule the public hearing, in order to allow abutters more time to voice their opinions, but Georgantas said the hearing was a courtesy, not a requirement.

"I'm sitting here and thinking the way that this is playing out is 'the good guys versus the bad guys,'" he said. "It's not that. We're all in this together. This is the school board who was charged to bring a school to this community."