New Hampshire town will get new elementary

From The Boston Globe: Residents in the town of Unity, N.H., have voted to spend $4.7 million to build a new elementary school after the state moved to shut down the existing Unity Elementary School because it was deemed unsafe. They also approved $143,000 in emergency renovations to the existing school so children can attend classes there this year while the new building is under construction. The New Hampshire Board of Education voted in July to close the school because of fire code and other safety violations. It was the first time the state board had shut down a school.


JUNE 2010...from The Boston Globe: Unity Elementary School in Unity, N.H., may become the first school ever closed by the state for life-threatening building violations. The state school board is scheduled to vote next month on whether to shutter the 55-year-old school. The school has remained open for two years on conditional approval by the state to allow time to correct fire code violations that include dead-end corridors with no exits, a lack of fire-resistant partitions and classrooms that do not have two exits. Local officials estimate repairs would cost more than the $5.9 million needed to build a new school. If the school is closed, the 120 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade would likely be transported to Claremont, about 10 miles away.