After years of wrangling over whether to sell or renovate the former Washington Street Elementary and Penacook High School building, Merrimack Valley’s school board could finally decide on its future as soon as next month.
“The school has either got to have a complete upgrade or we need to offload it – one or the other,” Jessica Wheeler Russell, chair of the board’s facilities committee, said in an interview, speaking in her individual capacity rather than on behalf of the board.
“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” she said.
Built in the 1930s, the building currently houses the Merrimack Valley Learning Center, an alternative middle and high school for students who need additional support in a smaller setting. The district also rents a portion of the building to the CSI Charter School and runs a food pantry out of the school.
Situated on Penacook’s Washington Street, about a mile from the main middle and high schools, the building has had a varied nearly century-long history. It opened in 1935, served as the district’s high school until 1967 and then became Penacook’s elementary school until 2002.
The Learning Center and charter school have occupied the building for about the last dozen years, according to district facilities director Fred Reagan.
The three-story brick building “has good bones,” Reagan said, but requires a laundry list of upgrades. The pipes hiss and leak. The basement boiler room fills with ankle-deep water after heavy rain. Some windows are held in place by wooden beams, and the building fails to meet a host of accessibility requirements.
Most classrooms have a whiteboard but otherwise look like relics of another generation, with tan-painted bricks, exposed pipes and old linoleum and wooden floors.
Facilities director Fred Reagan stands in the utility room for the Washington Street School building. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER/For the Monitor 
Operations and Maintenance Director Fred Reagan looks over the steam-generated heating system in the basement of the Washington Street School building in the Merrimack Valley School District on Tuesday, October 14, 2025. 
The steam boiler at the Washington Street School of the Merrimack Valley School District. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER/For the Monitor 
Operations and Maintenance Director Fred Reagan has all the keys for the Washington Street School building in the Merrimack Valley School District. 
The electrical and water pump room at the Washington Street School of the Merrimack Valley School District. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER/For the Monitor 
Operations and Maintenance Director Fred Reagan looks over a third floor classroom at the Washington Street School building in the Merrimack Valley School District.
Renovating the building would involve installing a new heating and air conditioning system, upgrading the electrical system and installing an elevator, among other work. It would cost roughly $5.4 million, according to an assessment completed earlier this year.
Selling the 32,000-square-foot building could generate between $1 million and $1.3 million, a valuation conducted by a real estate firm determined. But that alternative would come with a corresponding loss in revenue from the charter school, which pays rent, and from the out-of-district tuition Merrimack Valley receives for students at the Learning Center from elsewhere.
It would also lead to the displacement of those students and staff. The district does not have an obvious option for where to relocate the school, Reagan said.
The case for renovating
The potential benefits of retaining the school building are both financial and programmatic, district employees said.
In addition to bringing in revenue through rent from the charter school and tuition to the Learning Center from other districts, keeping the building would obviate the need for Merrimack Valley to send some of its own students to special education private schools, which are costly.
In terms of the services the Learning Center offers, longtime employees say the school is a gem that fills a vital niche.
“I think the kids that come here are comfortable here,” administrative assistant Gayle Sweeney said. “They’re familiar with the building. You’re off the campus, which they like. I think that helps them be more successful. Some kids just can’t handle the large environment like that.”
36 students are currently enrolled at the school, according to Sweeney, who has worked there for more than two decades. Students, who range in age from 11 to 21, take small classes and receive individualized support through close relationships with faculty and other staff.
“They know my dog’s name, and I know what they had for dinner the night before,” school counselor Daryl Wells said. “We really pride ourselves on: If you don’t have a relationship with a kid, you’re not going to get anything out of them.”
Placing the students back into the district’s general population or in a wing of the main middle and high school buildings would not go well, Wells said.
“You still have the noise, the crowds, the same administrators who don’t discipline from a trauma lens,” she said. “They really need their own separate space.”
The case for selling
The district is already in a financially challenging position. A $2 million over-expenditure during the 2023-24 school year has yet to be fully absorbed, and taxpayers rejected a budget proposal by the school board last spring.
Revenue generated by the sale could serve as a short-term boon, and avoiding a capital project over the coming years could stabilize tax rate increases.
From a community standpoint, the building could potentially be converted into needed housing amid a statewide housing shortage.
Details of a potential renovation
The board’s facilities committee is set to meet on Monday to decide whether to place the future of the building on the board’s agenda for its November meeting. Next week’s meeting will provide more answers about the specifics of a potential renovation.
How to fund the project will likely be a major topic of conversation. Reagan said the district is not considering bonding to pay for it. More likely, funding would come from out-of-district tuition, as well as from the maintenance expendable trust and operating budget, he said.
Funding sources would dictate the length of the project. Reagan said it could likely be completed without displacing the building’s occupants.
