LEBANON — In a split vote, the school board has killed a plan to build a childcare center next to the SAU 88 offices on Seminary Hill.
The decision came after months of discussion and negotiation between the school board, city council and the nonprofit Boys & Girls Club of Central and Northern New Hampshire that plans to build and operate the facility.
While the school board did not vote on a final lease agreement, the group moved 4-4 at a Wednesday meeting to not approve a document that would have put the city and school district each on the hook for half of the cost of taking down the building after it is no longer useful.
School Board Chairwoman Lil Maughan, who voted in favor of the agreement, and Attorney Matt Decker made it clear that a consensus against the document or a tie vote would end the school district’s involvement in the project.
Board members who voted not to move forward said the decision came down to the school board taking on costs for the project and that the project is out of the scope of the group’s responsibility.
“Why we’re here is to educate students,” Board Member John D’Entremont said. “We are not commercial real estate developers and we’re not landlords.”
The plan to build a childcare center in Lebanon started at the city level in 2023 when former City Manager Shaun Mulholland proposed building a $22 million facility with space for 200 children near the Lebanon Municipal Airport to address a childcare shortage in the city.
After securing a grant from the federal government, the city put that version of the project aside and presented fresh plans to work with the Boys & Girls Club to build a smaller facility on Seminary Hill in February. The proposal included building a facility on school-district owned land and a parking lot and driveway on neighboring city-owned land.
Voters gave the board permission to start negotiating a lease agreement for the project in March elections, with the understanding that there would be no cost to city taxpayers. The project is being funded by the Boys & Girls Club along with a mix of grant funding secured by the city and nonprofit.
Since then, board members have expressed feeling forced into the project and that there has been poor communication around how each entity is involved and who is taking the lead. Some West Lebanon residents also opposed the location.
Candy Hammond, Kerry O’Hara and Tia Winter also voted no. Chairwoman Lil Maughan and board members Joe Castelot, Laila Volle and Richard Ford Burley voted to move forward with one member, Travis Talbert, absent.
“We have promised this will not cost anybody anything and the further we’re getting down the road, this is costing more and more and more,” O’Hara said.
Board members who voted to move forward said they were still torn about the decision.
“The need for childcare is so overwhelming for me(…)” Maughan said. “Child care, early childcare, early childhood education, any of those things, contributes to the long term success of our students, the long-term stability of our students.”
Despite the vote, the project is not dead yet.
Anticipating a potential shakeup, City Manager Andrew Hosmer and Mayor Doug Whittlesey came to Wednesday night’s City Council meeting with a back-up plan. The council authorized Hosmer to start discussions with the Boys & Girls Club to move the project to city-owned land at 226 Mascoma Street next to the Sacred Heart Cemetery.
Hosmer and Whittlesey started writing a letter of intent to move the project about a week before Wednesday’s meeting “because there was ongoing concerns that the stipulations, even what we had agreed to with the school board, were being altered,” Whittlesey said.
“I think we were both equally concerned, in our own ways, that it was unlikely to pass the school board and we do want to see this project move forward,” Whittlesey told the council.
The city purchased the property in 2022 for $235,000, according to property records.
At the time, the plan was to use the land to expand the cemetery if necessary, Councilor Tim McNamara said at Wednesday’s meeting. But, he said, an expansion is looking less needed as cremations have increased.
“We spent a lot of money getting site engineering and architects for the other property,” Boys & Girls Club CEO Chris Emond told the council after the Wednesday decision. “(…) Whatever we do here(…)we have to have some assurances because my board’s not going to let me make that mistake twice.”
The council plans to take up the conversation again in August.
The council also voted 8-1 Wednesday night, with Councilor Eric Cole voting against, to submit an application for $750,000 of Community Development Block Grant funds to support the project.
