To build or not to build high school?

Although school elections in Bedford are more than two months away, the campaigns for two competing high school construction proposals are already heating up. Some here hope the politically charged atmosphere doesn't become as divisive as in previous unsuccessful votes on the issue, but others believe it could be the worst yet.

"It's going to be bitter," said Roy Stewart, president of the Bedford Taxpayers Association.

Bedford, one of the most affluent communities in the state, does not have its own high school. The town has been sending its older students to West High School in Manchester for decades, but with approximately 800 Bedford students going there now, many in town believe it's time to build a school of their own.

The town has been torn over the issue for the last several years, with nearly a half-dozen special interest groups weighing in. A strong faction in town remains in favor of a long-term tuition contract with Manchester.

This year's debate over the issue boils down to building a public high school or paying tuition for students to attend a yet-to-be-constructed private high school in town. At its Dec. 13 meeting, the School Board, after months of research, formally endorsed the construction of a grade 7 to 12 public school rather than a private high school. The public school, which would be designed to keep seventh- and eighth-graders separate from older students, will cost $46.7 million to build. The proposal, which would qualify for 30 percent reimbursement from the state, will go before voters in March.

"It solves the school capacity needs for as far into the future as we can see," said Paul Brock, School Board chairman.

Proponents of a private high school, however, have not given up. Four days after the School Board vote, Haig Yaghoobian, founder of the yet-to-be-opened Bedford Academy, and two other members of the board of trustees held a press conference at the local cable television studio to formally present an abandoned high-tech office building at 8 Commerce Drive as a potential location for its school. Yaghoobian said it would cost $32 million to renovate the approximately 90,000-square-foot building and add 115,000 square feet for classrooms, an auditorium, a gymnasium, and a cafeteria.

Leaders of Bedford Academy expect to gather the necessary 25 signatures of registered voters to get a warrant article on the March ballot that would formally declare the academy the official high school in town, allowing public tuition dollars to be spent there.

The high school would be modeled after the state's two other private high schools, Pinkerton Academy in Derry and Coe-Brown Northwood Academy in Northwood, which are run by private boards of trustees but serve as public high schools for local communities.

"It's not reinventing the wheel," Yaghoobian said of the Bedford Academy proposal. "It's something we believe is significantly better than the Manchester agreement."

"The town," he said, "has been through a great deal of pain on the high school issue. It's time to put that behind us."

But it is unclear whether New Hampshire law would allow for the creation of another private academy for public high school students, Sarah Browning, an administrator who oversees legislation for the state Department of Education, said recently. Pinkerton and Coe-Brown Northwood started in the 1800s, and there have been changes to state law since then. The schools, which are technically called "public academies" even though they are private, were popular across New England during a time when compulsory education laws hardly existed.

Yaghoobian, however, has persuaded some state legislators to file legislation to clarify any ambiguity in state law.

Bedford School Board and Bedford Academy representatives have raised questions about the accuracy of each other's numbers and the feasibility of each other's proposed sites for their schools. The Bedford Academy representatives believe the School Board has greatly underestimated the cost to blast ledge from its vacant property on Nashua Road. Meanwhile, School Board members are raising doubts that Bedford Academy has the financial ability to purchase the vacant office building or that the owners want to sell it.

A representative for Brady-Sullivan Properties, the building's leasing agent, could not be reached for comment.

Yaghoobian said if the building is not available there are other vacant office buildings in town.

Terry Wolf, president of Taxpayers for Quality Education, said she worries that two different school construction projects on the same ballot will confuse voters. She said she hopes the debate does not deteriorate into mudslinging.

"It's going to be complicated enough for voters," she said.

David Grimes, a director of the Bedford High School Coalition, said he is open to the idea of a private high school, but said he has not heard enough details from Bedford Academy to convince him it would be better than a public high school. He credits the School Board for doing an especially good job of following a public process in coming up with its current plan, and he believes others in town are pushing for a more harmonious atmosphere this time around.

"I really believe there is an effort to come together for the good of the town," he said.

Still, Brock predicts the campaign season will be long and hard fought.

"I pray it won't be nasty," he said, "but I expect it to be aggressive."