RAYMOND – After the RSU 14 school board spent months developing options aimed at saving taxpayer money by shuttering underused schools, it took Raymond residents less than two hours Wednesday night to shoot holes in the board’s proposal to close Jordan-Small Middle School.

Hundreds of Raymond residents, ranging from former principals and concerned parents to current elementary and middle school students, made their opinions known regarding the board’s proposal to close Jordan-Small Middle School in order to save an estimated $230,000 annually.

And some of the protest mentioned inequity between the two towns that comprise the recently consolidated district as a dysfunctional “marriage” that has gone off the tracks. Some argued that Windham students should be bused to Raymond schools to help even out the populations in the district’s schools.

“I’m beginning to feel R.S.U. is starting to stand for Raymond Suffers Unanimously,” said Raymond resident Robert Murray, playing off the RSU 14 moniker and while proposing that Raymond’s secede from what he deemed a Windham-dominated school district.

The feeling among those who attended the meeting was nearly unanimous, with most residents voicing fierce opposition to the district’s “Short-Term Facilities Update Report,” released Oct. 27. The board’s report, which was criticized by some in the audience for not being drawn up with the input of Raymond teachers, listed six options, most of which close either Jordan Small or Manchester Elementary School in North Windham in an effort to save taxpayer money.

Prior to the meeting, the school board, which is comprised of six representatives from Windham and three from Raymond, had narrowed the focus to one option that transfers students from Jordan-Small to Raymond Elementary School. Under the proposal, Raymond Elementary would have grades K-4 on the first floor and 5-8 on the second.

While the school board said renovations would be needed to prepare Raymond Elementary School for the additional pupils, parents lamented the idea of crowding nine classes into the school, which was designed for about 450 small children. Everything about the school, even the height of the basketball hoops and toilets, as one woman pointed out, was designed with young children in mind.

Parents also were skeptical of cost savings, with one man who moved to Raymond especially for the “excellent schools” saying the board was “crazy” if it believes a renovation would cost less than $1-3 million, which he said would negate any anticipated cost savings.

Those cost savings, which the report estimated at $774,000 over the first five years with renovations factored in and $230,000 a year after that, come at too steep a price for most of the Raymond residents who spoke at the two-hour public hearing.

Parents and even schoolchildren hammered home the idea that closing Jordan Small wouldn’t save money as proposed, would disrupt the supportive community that the school has fostered in its students, could cost more in terms of bus transportation costs with rising gas prices, and would cause overcrowding at Raymond Elementary School.

Some felt redistricting may be a better option. Since Raymond’s two schools are at half capacity according to the report, a better option, they say, would be busing children who live in North Windham to the Raymond schools. That, they argue, would prevent the district from having all schools at capacity, with no room for growth.

Objections ran the gamut, however. One elementary student, Cal Murray, said he’d be “really sad” if the board closed Jordan Small. A parent, Brian Walker, used figures to demonstrate the impact of a school closure.

“I am concerned that some of the short-term cost savings that your objectives are focusing on may actually collide with longer term implications,” said Walker. “The closing of the school exacerbates and does not help the current overcrowding issue that the RSU has.” He went on to estimate that removing Jordan-Small would actually put the district over capacity by 10 percent, versus the current under-capacity level of 5.7 percent.

Some speakers, like Carrie Colby, were upset that the board hasn’t personally investigated the current Raymond Elementary School to see if it’s feasible for kids spanning nine grade levels but are instead relying on collected data.

“I think the most shocking thing I’ve heard here tonight is that you folks have not visited this school,” she said. “K-8 schools that were successful started out with a plan to be a K-8 school so the gym was built to the right size, the lockers were already put in there, to actually shoehorn our kids into one school without you folks having been and looked and seen, there are actually things here that need addressing for the K-4 students. So I think before you consider anything else, you need to get in this school and look around.”

Next Wednesday, Nov. 17, Windham residents will get their chance to discuss the school idling plan with a similar public hearing taking place at Manchester Elementary School from 6:30-8:30 p.m. School Board Chairman Mike Duffy said the board would likely meet Dec. 8 to decide “what direction they’d like to go” but that some board members have already said they want more data before making the decision.