City, schools discuss sharing maintenance

DOVER — They met for two hours but could have likely met for another two hours and still have more to discuss.

The only thing that ended the 5 p.m. Wednesday meeting of the Joint Fiscal Committee, made up of members of the City Council and School Board, was the 7 p.m. City Council meeting held in the adjacent room at the McConnell Center.

While the discussion was wide-ranging, a central theme was how the school and city could better share services, especially as it comes to facility maintenance.

All seem to agree on the need to undertake and implement a shared maintenance plan for the city schools, but the committee did not make any concrete steps to begin such a process other than agreeing to continue the conversation.

School Board Chair Amanda Russell highlighted the need to replace ceiling panels Dover Middle School as a failure to not think long term for maintenance needs. “It’s a $100,000 problem that should have been dealt with when the building was built,” she said.

But Russell said the district can't replace the ceiling until it installs a dehumidification system in the school. When the Dover Middle School was completed in 2000, there was a space created for that dehumidification system, but one was never installed, she said.

There was talk about installing the system in 2023, "which is 23 years too late," Russell said.

School District Superintendent William Harbron said with the new opening of an $87 million high school it is imperative to develop a maintenance plan to protect the city’s investment for the long term, referencing the 50-year life of the previous high school that will be knocked down in the coming months.

Ward 5 Councilor Dennis Shanahan suggested the development of a city-wide facilities plan. City Manager Michael Joyal said developing such a plan would require outside expertise and then using the capital improvement program to budget for the long-terms costs. “Ultimately, the best laid plans will be fruitless unless money is set aside,” he said.

Harbron expressed the need to invest more in the district for better outcomes. He was concerned about how well the district's literacy program was developing young readers for long-term success. He said the education being delivered at the schools “is good, but it’s not great. But our children need to be great. That’s what I came here to do.”

Harbron stressed the city needs to invest more to implement the competency-based education model, a strategic goal of the School Board. The district also needs to invest more in its educators and provide opportunities for ongoing professional development.

But Harbron said he is also concerned how that district can accomplish these goals with its debt load from the new high school and Garrison Elementary School renovation project within the constraints of the city’s tax cap. “We’re sweating on how we are going to do it,” he said.

Ward 4 School Board member Zak Koehler suggested the City Council and School Board create a working group to meet regularly to keep communication lines open and be able to start taking a deeper dive into the issues but no specific action was taken on his proposal.

Both boards committees to meet again soon in the coming months to continue discussions.