The date for the end of the Newtown High School auditorium renovation project may now be June, as the Board of Education learned at its September 20 meeting.

Construction documents, specifications, and a cost estimate for the final design phase of the Newtown High School auditorium renovation were approved by the school board at the meeting, after an update was shared by Service Project Manager Geralyn Hoerauf of STV|DPM. Project team members Kent McCoy from Smith Edwards McCoy Architects and Al Howat from Newfield Construction were also present for the meeting.

An update on the roughly $3.6 million project shared at an August 17 school board meeting by Public Building and Site Commission Chair Robert Mitchell anticipated it would be complete around May - with a second phase of the project, roughly $850,000, anticipated to be finalized and funded separately in the district's Capital Improvement Plan, which is still before the Board of Finance ahead of going to the Legislative Council for approval.

"The next step in this project, given your approval, is to take it to the state office of school construction grants. We require their approval to actually take the project out to bid," Ms Hoerauf during themeeting last Tuesday evening.

Mr McCoy said the focus of the project is handicapped accessibility and code upgrades.

"What is included in the [base] project is essentially recreating the entire auditorium floor, so that you have handicapped accessibility not only to the seats down in front, but also to seats along the cross-aisle to the middle of the auditorium," said Mr McCoy.

Sight lines to the stage are also being improved, and the acoustics are being "architecturally improved," according to Mr McCoy. All new seating, mechanical upgrades, electrical upgrades, and infrastructure for future theater and lighting upgrades are included in the project.

"What is not included in the project, only because we couldn't fit it in the budget," said Mr McCoy, "is the actual upgrades... like the theater lights themselves, the new rigging system, and new curtains. But the infrastructure is in. The new control booth is included and is now handicapped accessible and larger than what you currently have."

Board of Education member John Vouros said he was under the assumption the renovation project would be done much faster, and questioned why the project is "so far behind."

"I say that as a former educator, because it throws off the educational thrust of what these teachers and students need to do," said Mr Vouros. "Basically, speaking for myself, it is not fair. It is not easy for them to do the professional quality that they do elsewhere. And it is all going to cost money to move them to wherever they need to go to continue the level at which we are used to and they are used to."

The project team also originally thought the project would be completed by the end of the 2016 calendar year, according to Ms Hoerauf.

"It is taking much longer to develop the project, and at this point we do not anticipate construction being completed until next June," said Ms Hoerauf. "So the school will in fact lose another semester-worth of use of the auditorium."

Ms Hoerauf attributed the delay to a number of factors, including reapplying for the grant due to procedural issues, and time spent redesigning it "to fit $6 million worth of improvements into a $3.6 million budget."

Assuming state approval and time for the bid process, Ms Hoerauf said, construction will begin around the start of December.

"We have about a 24-week estimated time of construction," said Ms Hoerauf, adding later, "So it does look like June at this point."