A group from officials from Dartmouth, the Dresden School Board and the Hanover Board of Selectmen have drawn up a proposal that will allow Hanover High School to stay at its current location on Lebanon Street in Hanover and will allow the construction of a new middle school on a Dartmouth-owned property on Reservoir Road.
The proposal replaces a prior deal that would have involved Dartmouth purchasing the land on which Hanover High currently stands for $18.7 million. The Dresden School District would then build two new schools on 60 acres located near the golf course on Reservoir Road.
Geoffrey Vitt, a member of the Dresden School Board, said that the new proposal is more attractive than the old one because so many residents of the district want to see Hanover High remain downtown.
"There's a substantial segment of both the Hanover and Norwich communities that wanted to keep at least one school on site," he said. "Hanover High is in the heart of the downtown community, and there's an educational value to keeping the school downtown."
Brian Walsh '65, Th '66, chair of the Hanover Board of Selectmen, also mentioned that many citizens of both communities want to avoid seeing Hanover swallowed by Dartmouth.
"As it is now, we have a college and a town together," he said. "But many people have a strong feeling that if both schools move out, ultimately Hanover would become a suburb surrounding a college."
The Dresden School District will receive less money under the new proposal than under the old one: instead of receiving $18.7 million from Dartmouth and Hanover, the school district will receive only $11.6 million. Vitt was unconcerned about the school district's financial loss.
"In an ideal world, we'd receive the same reward," Vitt said, "But it's still wonderful."
He added that Dartmouth was paying more for the land on Reservoir Road than its fair market value. Vitt estimated that the difference between the land's value and Dartmouth's offer was in the seven-figure range.
The proposal is not yet final: it will be presented to first the Dresden School Board next week and then to the Hanover Board of Selectmen for a vote, according to Brian Walsh '65, Th '66, chair of the Hanover Board of Selectmen.
Should it pass both the Dresden School Board and the Hanover Board of Selectmen, it will then be put to vote at a town meeting in Hanover, probably around the beginning of October, Walsh said.
