With a new middle school in the works for RSU 14, which includes the towns of Raymond and Windham, a committee has been meeting to determine how to best repurpose the Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond.
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| A Raymond Committee to formulate ideas for how to best repurpose Jordan-Small Middle School when it becomes vacant will present its recommendations to the Raymond Select Board. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
“The JSMS Visioning Committee is recommending to the Select Board and the future Building Development Committee to use the school building to house the Parks and Recreation Department, the Library, Town Hall Offices and Community Services,” Committee Chair Peter Lockwood said in an email. “Our focus is to create a Community Center that supports all ages and residents of Raymond.”
The new Windham Raymond Middle School will be situated in Windham and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2027. At that time Jordan-Small Middle School will close, as will Windham Middle School and JSMS will be ready for repurposing. The groundbreaking for the new school took place last September.
The committee’s recommendations align closely with an exit poll of voters on Election Day in June 2024. At that time the Raymond Comprehensive Plan Committee asked voters their thoughts about how best to repurpose JSMS. The results were – from highest to lowest – a community center, recreation, library, town office, and childcare, according to the April 15 committee meeting minutes.
When the idea to form the committee came up before the Raymond Select Board on Dec. 10, Board Chair Rolf Olsen said, “The committee’s task would be to do conceptual ideas on what could be done using the school. I don’t envision looking at cost or feasibility. That would be a second committee. This is the pie in the sky people that are going to say here’s things that could be done.”
He recommended putting a wide group of stakeholders on the committee. Committee members that were appointed March 11 included a librarian, an assistant scout master, a member of the Comprehensive Planning Committee, a retired educator and others.
Olsen said in December that the visioning committee would look at “what are practical, what are not practical and what are the costs going to be because at some point we’re going to come down to the fact that we’re going to have to spend some bucks up there. And we need to have a plan first that says this is what we want to do.”
During their work, committee members looked at the school and a number of other town facilities to see how they were being used and what was needed. They looked at the town office, the library, the Public Safety building and two locations leased for programs and offices.
They also visited facilities at nearby towns that took over former schools for town use.
“We started our process by first understanding the mission of this committee as communicated by the Select Board,” Lockwood said. “We reviewed the Raymond Comprehensive Plan which is in the final stages of being approved by the town. We had total freedom to dream and think about any and all options. We were not restricted by cost. Cost concerns will be part of the next phase or the next committee. First. we decided to tour all the current Town of Raymond facilities, JSMS, Town Hall, Library, Raymond Village Community Church (RVCC), and three Public Safety Buildings. Next, we contacted three adjacent towns that have gone through the same process or are currently working on a similar project, Gorham, Westbrook, and Windham.”
Public input will be sought during the process to determine the best use of the school. “In our report we have recommended an extensive survey of the town should be one of the first actions of the next committee,” he said.
The next step for the current committee is to report its recommendations to the Select Board. <
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