For Immediate Release

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019

Media Contact: Kelsey Bode
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Raymond Superintendent Announces Classroom Relocation Plans for Fall 2020

RAYMOND — Superintendent Tina McCoy is announcing plans to relocate fourth grade and preschool classrooms to provide students with larger spaces designed to better support modern curriculum.

Next summer, all fourth grade classrooms will be moved from Lamprey River Elementary School to Iber Holmes Gove Middle School, and the district’s preschool program will be moved out of Lamprey River Elementary School to Raymond High School.

“Right now, we have two school facilities that are underutilized, and one that is crowded and has numerous challenges that need to be addressed,” Superintendent McCoy said. “These transitions will ensure a more distributed and equitable use of classroom space across the entire District, and provide exciting opportunities for students as we examine the elementary school facility and consider whether renovations or a new building is necessary to meet the needs of our student population in the future.”

Built in the 1970s, Lamprey River Elementary School was designed as an “open concept” facility, which has fallen out of common practice in schools today. As the district’s student population has continued to rise, the school has additionally added on three sets of portable classrooms to accommodate.

The transition will allow the district to remove the portable classrooms at Lamprey River, which do not provide students and staff with immediate access to restrooms and generate unnecessary foot traffic through the kindergarten wing. In addition, the changes will provide fourth grade and preschool students with larger classrooms, with more natural light.

Both the middle and high schools have ample space to house the fourth grade and preschool programs, respectively.

“Moving the preschool and fourth grade is a much more efficient use of school district facilities,” said Raymond School District Director of Facilities Todd Ledoux. “Removing the portables also creates a safer, more energy efficient facility at the elementary school. Although this decision does not solve the space needs at the school, it does provide a much better learning environment for our preschoolers and fourth graders, while allowing the entire elementary school to be in one building.”

Fourth and fifth grade students will take classes on a separate floor from sixth, seventh and eighth grade students at the middle school next year, and the district will be working over the coming months to develop a new master schedule for the building. The district’s bus company will also be creating revised routes to better facilitate the transition.

Once the new schedule is finalized, the district will host informational sessions with the parents of fourth and fifth grade students for fall 2020, as well as tours and visits. Tours and informational sessions will also be held for parents of preschool students once renovations are complete.

All district parents will be provided with updates regularly about the transition.

Preschool students will additionally benefit from classrooms at Raymond High School, which will be renovated to offer direct access to preschool appropriate bathrooms, a therapy room and a fenced in playground, which will be installed over the summer.

As a result of the move, Raymond High School students will also have the opportunity to intern at the preschool program and learn more about early childhood development.

A Building Committee comprised of five voting community members, led by Chairman Ken Hajjar, and non-voting school district administrators is meeting monthly to examine the Lamprey River Elementary School facility and working to develop recommendations for the School Board for the future of the building, which may involve renovations or a proposal to build a new facility. The group is anticipated to present their findings to the School Board by October 2020.

###