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Hundreds of residents urge Manchester Board of Mayor & Aldermen to reverse pause on Beach Street School project
Summary
Dozens of residents, school leaders and students told the Board of Mayor & Aldermen that delaying the Beach Street School Phase 1 rebuild will prolong students' time in modular classrooms and add roughly $250,000 in monthly costs; supporters said phase 1 is funded and urged the board to approve a deed swap needed to move construction forward.
Dozens of Manchester residents, educators and student representatives urged the Board of Mayor & Aldermen on Monday to rescind a recent decision that paused the Beach Street School Phase 1 rebuilding plan.
At the meeting's public-comment period, speakers representing neighborhood groups, the Manchester Education Association, the school board and business organizations described students operating in temporary modular classrooms, cited deferred maintenance and pressed the board to back a deed revision and parcel-swap with Amiskay Industries required for the new school site.
"Phase 1 is fully funded," school board representative Jessica Spillers said, adding the district had set aside $17,000,000 to ensure the project would not affect taxes. Several speakers repeated a district figure that the full district facilities plan totals $306,000,000 and said the Beach Street portion of Phase 1 was approximately $82,000,000.
Teachers' union leader Sue Hannon told the board the swap "does not add anything new to taxes" and called the proposed change a reasonable site modification of work already authorized. Student board members and parents described overcrowded classrooms and modular units, and multiple speakers said the city is losing money while construction is stalled. "Each month of delay adds approximately $250,000 to the project's expenses," Erin Kerwin told the board.
Opponents and skeptical residents questioned whether a new building would fix classroom instruction. A handful of commenters cited research or urged the board to consider alternatives such as curriculum investment, temporary town halls with constituents, or broader budget trade-offs. One speaker said Beach Street has 13 classrooms without windows and cited problems with ventilation, acoustics and building systems.
The mayor and aldermen did not vote on the underlying deed revision during the meeting. After the public comments the chair called for a routine motion "to take all comments under advisement and further receive and file any documentation," which aldermen moved and passed by voice vote.
What happens next: speakers asked the Board of Mayor & Aldermen to use its rules for reconsideration so the deed revision and land-swap could be returned to the floor. Board members asked about procedure; the city attorney read the rules for motions to reconsider, which require the motion to be made by a member of the majority or, if notice was given at the meeting where a vote passed, to be moved at the next regular meeting.
The Board did not schedule a further vote on the Beach Street items during the session. Several public commenters and local organizations said they will continue outreach to aldermen and the mayor to press for a reversal.
