The Board of Education postponed a decision on its five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) during its meeting Tuesday, August 18, and discussed looking at a  proposed Hawley Elementary School heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) project further.

As explained by school board CIP/Finance/Facilities Committee member Kathy Hamilton, changes to the board’s proposed CIP for 2016 through 2021 include a Middle Gate Elementary School boiler and lighting upgrade, a revision to the Newtown High School roof project, and a new project to replace the turf field at NHS, to meet the recommended ten-year replacement.

According to Ms Hamilton, last year’s CIP had Middle Gate’s HVAC project planned to be completed in 2017-18, and it was moved ahead to the 2016-17 year, “so that they could take advantage of a program that is being offered by [Eversource].”

Part of the Sandy Hook Elementary School new building project, according to Ms Hamilton, includes the town digging a trench for a gas line and Eversource installing the line for free.

“The thinking is they can do the same thing for Middle Gate School,” Ms Hamilton said.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley estimated the gas line projects would normally cost roughly $400,000 to $600,000, but with the town doing the trenching and restoration work, he said, there is no cost.

“That’s already been signed off on by [Eversource] for Sandy Hook School and also for Middle Gate,” Mr Hurley said.

Ms Hamilton said doing the Middle Gate gas line project and the Middle Gate boiler project around the same time “would make sense.”

“So that’s why that project was moved up,” said Ms Hamilton.

The Hawley HVAC project, according to Ms Hamilton, was taken out during the last look at the CIP.

In the 2014-15 CIP, the Hawley HVAC project was listed in the fifth year of the plan, 2019-20. This year’s proposed CIP lists a Middle Gate roof replacement project in the fourth year, 2019-20, and the NHS turf replacement project in the fifth year, 2020-21.

Ms Hamilton said the school board CIP/Finance/Facilities Committee did not add the Hawley HVAC project back to the CIP, “because we still have not finished the conversation about [the] consolidation of schools. We have to remember that this CIP is a plan. It can be amended when we finish our conversation about all the different schools and where we are going to end up. We still don’t know.”

A Hawley roof replacement project is listed in the current proposed second year of the CIP, for 2017-18, for $800,000, and Ms Hamilton said it was originally part of the Hawley HVAC project. Ms Hamilton said the roof project was left in because the committee felt it has to be done.

While explaining some of the decisionmaking behind the CIP, Ms Hamilton said the town tries to keep the debt service level at eight percent.

“When people propose projects you have to try to move them into the years that [not only] make sense for capital projects, but it makes sense for the debt service so it flattens out our debt services,” said Ms Hamilton.

The Hawley HVAC project, Ms Hamilton explained, also includes other aspects of work, which she thinks need to be reevaluated by the school board.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, said the CIP represents the immediacy of the projects in the current year and the second year of the plan.

“So I think the real conversation needs to be centered around [2016-17, and] is the board comfortable going forward knowing these are the projects that will be discussed and implemented in the immediate future? Years two, three, four, and five really become place holders,” Dr Erardi said.

While saying he recognizes the sensitivity Hawley community members may feel, Dr Erardi said, “not placing the project on the capital plan is no way an indicator of anything other than we need to recalibrate the project. It needs to be brought back and then placed appropriately the following year.”

After sharing that the district’s Facilities Director Gino Faiella said safety at Hawley is not compromised by not completing the project, Dr Erardi said he supports the proposed CIP with focus over the next year on reevaluating the Hawley HVAC project.

Ms Hamilton said delaying the school board’s CIP decision would set back its moving before the Public Build & Site Commission and the Board of Finance for approval, specifically for year one projects, which are the Middle Gate boiler project and the NHS roof replacement.

“What we are putting at risk are our projects that are in year one,” said Ms Hamilton later in the meeting.

Newly appointed BOE CIP/Finance/Facilities Committee Chair David Freedman said he believes the school board can review the Hawley HVAC project over the next year and put it back into the CIP with “the true real hard numbers.” He did not recommend postponing the board’s decision on the proposed CIP.

After a failed vote on the CIP, it was announced the discussion will be brought up again at the school board’s next scheduled meeting, September 1, and at the  BOE CIP/Finance/Facilities Committee’s next meeting, which had not yet been scheduled by Tuesday.

This story was edited on Saturday, August 22.