On March 13, residents of Newmarket will vote on whether the town should use existing funds to purchase and survey a piece of land that would be used for a new high school. If voters decide not to fund the property, the next potential step might be to send all the town’s high school students to Portsmouth High School.

There are currently 630 students—350 in high school and 280 in middle school—who share the Newmarket Junior-Senior High School facility, which has an estimated capacity of 640. Since doubling between 1970 and 1990, population growth has remained at a steady 5 percent annually, and many residents worry the school will soon be overcrowded.

“The facilities are old and need to be updated,” said Newmarket Town Administrator Al Dixon. “Between the 1950s and 2007, education needs have changed and our facilities are outdated.”

According to the town’s Web site, the increase in students has a direct correlation to the increase in residential housing developments.

“Approximately 20 new students trigger the need for additional classroom space and additional staff,” the site states. “As new residential housing increases in Newmarket, the demands on the school system grow and move the town towards the need for new school buildings and staff.”

The Newmarket Town Council decided in 2000 to implement an impact fee for all new construction in order to defray the town’s operating costs that arise from new residential developments. According to the Planning Board Master Plan, “These fees are an important part of the Town’s policy toward growth management and the expansion of facilities to serve this growth.” 

One possible use for these fees would be to help cover a part of the costs of “tuitioning” Newmarket students to Portsmouth High School. According to Susan Caswell, business administrator for the Newmarket School District, the town would be responsible for covering annual tuition costs of $13,000 per student.

Portsmouth School Board member Ann Walker said Portsmouth would not likely bear any costs for enrolling Newmarket students. “They should be able to pay the tuition,” she said.

Although Portsmouth High School has enough capacity to accommodate the Newmarket students, adopting a larger student body would force the school to either increase class sizes or hire more teachers. While Newmarket would bear any associated expenses, the idea of larger classes does not sit well with school administrators.

“We definitely strive for a small class size in Portsmouth,” said assistant superintendent Stephen Zadravec. “We try to personalize education for each student, and that really can only be done when it’s a manageable class size.”

Zadravec stressed that both schools are in the early stages of discussion, and Portsmouth officials have not begun to study the potential impacts of adopting Newmarket students. “Honestly we haven’t done an in-depth analysis of any of that at this point,” he said. “All that’s happened is their superintendent, Kathy Murphy, has talked to our superintendent, Bob Lister, just to have a very, very preliminary question raised.”

Portsmouth High School is only one alternative for Newmarket students. Exeter and Oyster River have offered to take the students, but neither has the capacity for all 350. Barrington is in the process of building a new school and has shown willingness to accept all the Newmarket students, but their new facility will not be completed until 2010.
Newmarket is not the only area high school experiencing growth. Exeter High School, which has capacity for 2,000 students, has a current enrollment of 1,713. Over the last four years, there has been an average annual increase in the student body of 38 pupils, with 60 new students expected for next year, according to SAU 16’s chief financial officer Nathan Lunney. Dover High School has exceeded its capacity of 1,700 students with a current enrollment of 1,797. Over the last four years they have seen an average increase in their enrollment of 31 students, according to a 10-year enrollment report by the Dover School Board.    

Portsmouth completed renovations in 2005, increasing their capacity to 1,600. With a current enrollment of approximately 1,100, Portsmouth has room for the Newmarket students. As part of SAU 50, students from Rye, Greenland, Newington and New Castle already attend Portsmouth High School. All four towns pay tuitioning fees.