The building plan calls for building new classrooms and "core facilities" such as a media room and multi-purpose room as well as renovating art/science and music rooms at each of the district's three elementary schools. It sets aside money for a new roof at the middle school and for some renovations at the high school.
The $13.8 million bond, if approved March 7, would raise school taxes by about $189 a year for each taxpayer over the 20-year pay-back period.
Kennedy-Hall said the media centers proposed for the elementary schools are too large and too far away from classrooms. The group says plans to update school heating systems should be part of the bond issue.
The group questions whether the district's new "predistricting" plan - which changed elementary school sending districts so that children from new housing developments would be more evenly spread among the schools - is enough to prevent overcrowding in the next few years.
CARE member Karen Logue said the group was formed earlier this year by 10 to 15 residents dissatisfied with the school board's work on the building plan. The group has grown to more than 20 people who Logue said include both parents of school-age children and senior citizens.
"Until the plan is much clearer and more reasonable, we have to oppose it," Logue said. "There's no time for revisions . . . We did try working with the school board. Now we're trying to reach people by phone, and we're making up a handout we can give to community groups. We've called community groups and asked if we could speak at their meetings about our stand."
"We're trying to get the board to look at the average citizens and how they view this," she said. "In fairness to the school board, they have solicited input, but their plan does not necessarily fit within the everyone's pocketbook."
