Modular Classrooms To Ease The Crunch In Sandy Hook

By Jeff White

Principal Donna Pagé took one of her regular strolls through Sandy Hook School’s new modular classrooms Monday, and amid the hammering and welding remained confident that the expansion project would be completed on schedule.

The temporary classrooms – numbering four and jutting out from behind the school into its back playground – arrived via trucks in large pieces earlier this month, after site preparations that commenced in mid-June. In addition to four full-size classrooms, the extension includes an office and instructional room, bathrooms, and a hallway that connects to the school’s main building.

Though from the outside the addition looks practically complete, a walk through its hallways still yields sights of gutted rooms and some exposed wiring and fixtures.

“They’ve been working pretty quickly,” Mrs Pagé said, adding that the modular classrooms would be ready by the second week in August to have furniture moved in.

Three of the school’s planned six fourth grade classes would be housed in the expansion, Mrs Pagé explained. The remaining classroom would either be used as a math/science instruction room or for an additional class.

With the exception of the fifth grade, each grade level at Sandy Hook School will have six sections next year, a reality that reflects an enrollment swell remarkable in Newtown’s elementary schools.

Last year, while Hawley and Middle Gate schools enrollment hovered around 547 students and Head O’ Meadow held at 539, Sandy Hook had close to 700 students enrolled, a number that was expected to increase to 725 by the start of the school year this fall. Though Hawley’s enrollment for next year looks to increase more than originally expected, it still will not approach Sandy Hook’s level, and the other two elementary schools are expecting only nominal increases in their student population.

In preparation for the coming school year, two classes were added to Sandy Hook’s fourth grade, which saw 26 students in each of its four classes last year, well above the district’s class size recommendations. An additional fifth grade class will be added this year as well.

Mrs Pagé explained that while the portable classrooms would help eliminate the strain of swelling class sizes, they will also help instructional classes like music, art, and special education. Last year, these classes did not have permanent classrooms, but rather were relegated to carts that went from one room to the next as space allowed.

“We needed room for these programs to spread out,” Mrs Pagé said.

The modular classrooms are being installed by Arthur Building Systems of Bristol, and will be leased by the school district for the next three years at approximately $7,000 annually. The district provided for the classrooms’ funds in its 2000-01 operating budget.

Work that continued on the extension this week included wiring for an eventual connection to the school’s computer network. The addition is scheduled for carpeting by next week, and must receive a certificate of occupancy from the town’s building department before furniture can be moved in.

School board members hope that these portable classrooms will be temporary, and that their proposed 5/6 school, which stands to pull significant student populations from the four elementary schools when it is completed, will eradicate the need for them by the 2002-03 school year.