LEBANON — A new private arts high school slated for downtown Lebanon received approval for a permit it needs to occupy a space on the pedestrian mall, as well as a warm welcome from neighbors at a Planning Board meeting this week.
The Lebanon Planning Board’s unanimous approval of a conditional use permit for the New England School of the Arts on Monday night paves the way for the school to use 5,000 square feet of space at 9 Hanover St., which is owned by the Hanover-based HSD Inc., for its operations. It is slated to open in the fall of 2023.
Assistant Mayor Clifton Below, who manages the neighboring building at 1 Court St., welcomed Etna residents Jennifer and Carl Chambers, who will be leading the new school, to Lebanon, according to a recording of the meeting. Below noted that the school will be the fifth educational institution on the city’s pedestrian mall.
“I think this is a great use,” Below said. It’s “highly compatible with the abutting uses.”
The building at 9 Hanover St. currently is home to the Women’s Health Resource Center on the first floor. It sits between buildings that house River Valley Community College and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth, and not far from Ledyard Charter School and the Lebanon Ballet School. The space the Chambers plan to use formerly served as offices for West Central Behavioral Health.
Bill Dunn, chairman of the Lebanon Economic Development Commission who also sits on the Arts & Culture Commission, described the location as an “ideal space” for the new school.
“It’s just going to make Lebanon the hub of the arts in all forms,” Dunn said in the recording.
Planning Board members were similarly complimentary of the new endeavor, but they did have some questions.
Thomas Jasinski, a board alternate, asked the Chambers how they planned to manage parking, which he said “is often difficult in downtown.”
Carl Chambers, who is now principal at Mount Prospect Academy in Pike, N.H., said the new school plans to encourage its 50-100 students to use Advance Transit and carpool. In accordance with a request from the city’s Planning Department, Chambers said they plan to install a bike rack either on the pedestrian mall or near the tunnel below.
Jennifer Chambers, who is Hanover High School’s choral director and music coordinator, encouraged city officials to let them know if traffic becomes a problem.
“We can adjust what we’re doing,” she said. “We don’t want to be a menace.”
Some other board members asked how the new school would be funded. Board member Kathie Romano asked whether the private school would be taking funds away from public schools. Carl Chambers said “not unless they have school choice.”
Board member Laurel Stavis asked whether the Chambers plan to use vouchers from New Hampshire Education Freedom Accounts to fund the school. The vouchers, which were created last summer, allow qualifying families to access a “savings account” of state education funding that can put about $5,000 toward private school tuition, home schooling or school costs.
Carl Chambers said they were “looking more at scholarships” to fund the school. “We want to open up the school to all students in the Upper Valley,” he said.
The conditional use permit is necessary because a secondary education facility is not an allowed use within the Lebanon downtown district. The Planning Board can approve uses outside those that are allowed as long as they contribute to the vibrancy of downtown, encourage the presence of the public and aren’t in conflict with abutting uses, according to the staff memorandum included in the Planning Board’s packet for its Monday meeting.
Jennifer Chambers said the school will need additional permits from the New Hampshire Department of Education and the Lebanon Fire Department before it can open.
“I think what is so exciting (is) Lebanon seems hungry for having a vibrant arts scene,” she said.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
