Salem Residents Weigh In on $75M High School Project

The proposed renovations and upgrades to Salem High School have generated a lot of discussion, feedback and debate within the community as town meeting and the vote on the project draws near.

Numerous meetings and public sessions have been held to spread information and solicit ideas for the $74.75 million project, including an informative forum last week.

In an effort to continue to share locals' viewpoints about the work and spread awareness about what the project entails, Salem Patch has compiled some of the more informative comments from our readers.

The statements contained within those comments, posted below, are expressly the opinions of the individuals who posted them, and the comments represent some of the common viewpoints — both for and against the work — in the community.



B.C.M. I completely respect peoples view on both sides of this issue but I do think it is time to do this as a community. My son graduated from Salem High last year and received a great education despite the conditions of the school. All of us whether we have children in the system or not, need to realize the condition of this facility is beyond what you think it is and most of the serious problems you can't see. From Asbestos, to mold, rodents and no sprinkler systems just to name a few. Trust me, I am a single mother, caring for my mother, sending my son through college with no more children to enter the school district trying just like all of you to make ends meet and do not want my taxes to go up. I do feel we are going to pay for this one way of the other. I'd rather join together as a community and do something positive now, (using the grant), than to provide such an unhealthy environment for our youth or even worse wait for something bad to happen. Just my thoughts on the subject.

Howard Hughes Whoever came up with Taj Mahal was on target.

IVoted To the nay-sayers, come to the next public session and then decide. This is not the "Taj Mahal" solution. The building is close to 50 years old - it needs a roof, heating system, flooring, electrical, security retrofits, serious structural repairs to the gym - if the gym can be saved at all. These repairs must be done. Voting it down will be voting for spending millions of dollars in repairs for a building that no longer meets the needs of Salem. Voting it down and you're voting to decrease your property values, while increasing your taxes to pay for the repairs that can't wait. And don't blame "maintenance". The fact that the heating system has a 30-year life and has lasted 48 years means we've kept up with the maintenance. Voting it down is against your best financial interests. Don't just "assume". Come to the meeting and get informed.

Aquarius If our reps had any business sense (Garcias, Sytek , Bick) they would have voted yes for the casino and then we would've had some revenue stream to offset the costs of the High School renovation. Investment in education will pay back more for longer than say opening another tattoo parlor in town and collecting property tax.

salem mom I have not heard any of the folks who do not support the HS renovations say that they are not needed. Major renovations are needed. However, the School Board should present us with a dropping school budget that include fewer administration personnel and savings due to closing Haigh. Our total kid count is way down and still dropping and we've not dropped one admin position?! How is that possible? Our School Board needs to hear the townspeople loud and clear that they need to be responsible for our tax money and the best way for us to do that is to vote thise down and vote them out. Who is up this year for School Board? Gosh, I hope it is Pam Berry! Let's get her out.

Underwater Couple They are OVERBUILDING for current needs and for future needs too. No common sense in this at all. Big enough for some School Board members egos I am sure. Then a lot of the space has nothing to do with teaching.

Doug Seed Jr. I am a grad of SHS, resident of Salem and I am also in college admissions. I visit 75-100 high schools all over the Northeast in a given year (including SHS). SHS is so overdue for a reno/expansion it isn't even funny. It is easily in the bottom 20%, in terms of quality of facilities, of all of the schools I visit. Comparing what is available to students at other schools, our students and teachers are being put at a huge disadvantage. This should be a no-brainer for the town.

Salem Parent Lets say that we don't renovate the high school and let it limp along for a few more years. It saves us the tax payers money because our taxes will not go up. What's wrong with that? > Our property values will continue to go down, whether you have children or not the majority of people looking to purchase homes list schools as one of the top 5 deciding factors. > The school keeps deteriorating (maintenance can only do so much), and if renovations are approved in future years the cost will be more. > Someone gets hurt, sick or injured due to the state of the school. Now we have a major lawsuit on our hands. > Then what happens with they have to close the school down because there are so many safety violations??? The plan costs a lot but that is because we as a town have not committed the money that was needed long ago to make renovations. If you haven't been to the school recently then go take a look, watch out for the mice/rats that are running around, the leaking roof, and all the other hazards!!!

Ron Wells After all these years of being against a new or remodeled high school, I guess it is time to approve. If i was still aresident of Salem I would vote for this plan