RAYMOND – A request by school officials for Windham parents to voluntarily send their kids to Raymond schools now at half capacity is finding some support.

Regional School Unit 14 officials sent out the request, open to Windham K-4 students, in an effort to relieve overcrowding in Windham’s elementary schools, after attempts to force some students to move were overwhelmingly rejected by parents. However, officials say they have heard from four sets of Windham parents that are definitely interested in sending their children to Raymond, as well as four sets that might be willing if the busing arrangement meshes with their schedules.

“What we want to do is get a rough number and then I’ll go back to the [school] board and say, ‘OK, I’ve got five kids, or whatever the number is, are you going to do this or not?’” said Superintendent Sandy Prince. “So that’s really the next step is to give them firm numbers and then the board decides.”

The board is likely to decide in coming weeks if the amount of interest warrants the estimated $11,000 price tag, which includes a bus driver and associated transportation costs such as fuel.

Last year, the School Board proposed sending students living in northerly sections of Windham to Raymond schools. In 2010, a proposal was floated to shutter Jordan Small Middle School in Raymond and shuffle K-8 Raymond students into Raymond Elementary School. Neither proposal was popular with parents.

But school officials have been adamant that something has to be done to solve the imbalance, preferably at a low cost to taxpayers.

“We’re trying to do better,” said school board member Toby Pennels of Windham. “I’m really, really against putting up new classroom space [in Windham] when we have classroom space [in Raymond]. I just think that doesn’t look very responsible at all.”

Under the proposal, a 15-passenger bus would transport the Windham K-4 students each morning and afternoon to and from Raymond, though school officials would use a bigger bus if necessary. Students would be picked up at the primary school and Manchester Elementary School in Windham in the morning en route to Raymond Elementary School. In the afternoon, children not attending an after-school childcare program would be bused back to the Windham schools.

Exact times have not yet been determined, though the preliminary proposal calls for parents to drop their students at Windham Primary School no later than 7:40 a.m. The bus would depart at 7:45 a.m. The bus would then arrive at Manchester and leave by 7:57 a.m. with students arriving at Raymond Elementary School by 8:25 a.m.

Parents with two or more children at Windham Primary School will also have the option of sending one child to Raymond with the other remaining in Windham.

While the $11,000 expenditure would add to the budget, it’s less than adding portable classrooms or building an addition at the Windham Primary School, which is at capacity, Pennels said.

“It costs money, but in my opinion it’d be a lot less money than doing brick and mortar at the primary school,” he said.

The eight sets of Windham parents who have expressed interest so far have talked to Superintendent Sandy Prince’s secretary Joyce Logan. Logan says the interested parents are seeking a better student-to-teacher ratio.

“It’s because they want smaller classes,” Logan said. “They like a less-crowded school. Especially for kindergarten kids, the parents have mentioned the [primary] school is so big … they don’t want their child to feel overwhelmed.”

Holding some of the “maybe” parents back are final details such as exact pick-up and drop-off times, and whether that conflicts with their schedules, Logan said.

Once parent feedback is in, the school board has the final say whether the integration proposal becomes policy. Board member Catriona Sangster of Raymond said the melding of the elementary student population could be just the thing to spark more of a district-wide mentality.

“It’s not going to alleviate the overcrowding problem with just a few people, and it’s obviously not going to fill up the school in Raymond, but I think it also addresses the beginning of people starting to think of us as one district. And this is a baby step,” she said.

But the proposal isn’t just for psychological reasons, she said. It’s a way to address long-standing imbalances.

“The district has a primary school that is very full, there’s no arguing that it’s very full. And the numbers are growing for next year at the primary school,” Sangster said. “And there’s room in Raymond, so it makes sense to offer it if people are interested.”

Pennels sides with Sangster on the issue and says some solution to the imbalance needs to be struck before Windham Primary School’s population, which last year was 818 in a school designed for about 650, grows further. He said it also affects the bottom line.

“We’re certainly at capacity or near capacity in those schools and it’s not ideal, where we are under capacity in Raymond,” Pennels said. “The cost of education in Raymond is higher. I’ve stated that many, many times, this would certainly help equal those tables because, let’s face it, we do get some economies of scale out of Windham. And in Raymond we sometimes have trouble filling classrooms. So, I say, let’s try to get more efficiencies out of Raymond, and one way of doing that is to fill the schools up.”