School Bd To Get 5/6 School Update

By Jeff White

The Newtown Board of Education’s fifth and sixth grade school will be back on the agenda at its meeting next Tuesday night, as the project’s architectural and management firms are scheduled to give a progress update.

Like they have done once before, members from Jeter, Cook, and Jepson (JCJ), the project’s architects, and Strategic Building Solutions (SBS), the project management firm, will give adjusted design, budget, and timeline updates on the proposed school that is scheduled to open in the fall of 2002.

Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed was enthusiastic this week about the update. He promised that the presentation would give a clearer picture of where the project stands and where it is going, since now the district has a definite location and school design on which to base the project’s budget and timeline.

“We have a better idea about” what this school will look like, Dr Reed explained Wednesday afternoon.

School board chairman Elaine McClure said Thursday morning that she anticipates more light being shed on specific aspects of the project, like pitched vs. flat roofs and the use of brick. “This meeting is going to present us with options,” she said. It will be interesting to see “where [architects] are coming in now that that the project is site-specific,” she added.

 The school board, with support from the Legislative Council, decided in May to locate the new school on the site where Watertown Hall now sits, which has allowed the project’s architects to become more focused on the school’s design since they do not have to consider other possible locations.

The school board still has not decided whether or not it wants to “fast track” the project to ensure a fall 2002 opening, a decision that might come sometime this summer.

The board of education has extended an invitation for members of the town’s building commission and Legislative Council to attend the meeting, which will begin at 7:30 pm.