McAuliffe School Fun Fair Takes to the Street

On Thursday, May 22, it’s another Fun Fair at the McAuliffe Elementary School.

The fair, which runs from 5 to 7 p.m., is the annual PTO fundraiser and there will be all kinds of fun – food, games, and the like.

This year, due to problems on the school’s grounds, Rumford Street will be utilized for the event. The street will be closed, according to the General Services Department, from 3 to 8 p.m., between Pleasant and Warren streets. If it rains, the event will be moved indoors. 

The repairs are part of a one-year period by which the district hopes that drainage and structural problems on the grounds will be resolved.

The problems were first discovered not long after the school opened. The water problems are due to multiple factors including the 16-foot grade of the slope between Rumford and North Spring streets, the runs across the school parcel, and that it was constructed on an underground aquifer, as well as complications with the tiny lot size (a little more than two acres when the state requires new schools to be constructed on 10 acres).

Matt Cashman, the director of facilities and planning for the Concord School District, in an email, said that the district was “pleased with the progress of the lawn/playground grass and drainage work done last summer” on the grounds.

“We are staying with our original plan, to allow the grass to take route for one year, before we open it up to traffic,” he stated.