Board Of Education Will Attempt To Prioritize Capital Projects

By Susan Coney

The Newtown Board of Education agreed October 6 to come up with firmer numbers for the Hawley HVAC project and the high school expansion.

The Hawley project bid came in at $5.46 million on August 23, which surpassed by $2.1 million the proposed and approved $3.3 million appropriation.

Previously, the Board of Finance declined to approve the increased cost of the project and challenged the Board of Education to justify and possibly alter the work to be done at Hawley to bring it in line with the previously approved numbers for the renovation. The finance board members also encouraged the Board of Education to prioritize its projects.

On September 29, Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff sent a letter to finance board chairman John Kortze, requesting that the subject of the Hawley renovation be placed on the agenda for the Board of Finance meeting on October 27. In his reply, Mr Kortze indicated that the Board of Finance would be happy to take up the matter of the HVAC for consideration and possible action if it reflected costs listed in Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and if it was consistent with levels of spending supported by taxpayers.

Mr Kortze attended the school board’s October 6 meeting, and board member Lisa Schwartz asked him if the bids were held to the original amount approved for the project in the CIP, would the Board of Finance consider it for approval?

Mr Kortze said yes.

Board of Education member Andrew Buzzi asked Mr Kortze whether the school board had the ability to prioritize or change their projects, as long as the debt service for those projects remained within the original level of approval.

Mr Kortze replied, “You have to be consistent to the taxpayer. To go back and to rework this would be to say to the town you approved this but we’re going to use the money the way we want to. You have to be true to the taxpayer.”

Mr Buzzi replied, “I agree. We should be true to the taxpayer, but you have some flexibility because the CIP is a plan.”

Mr Kortze questioned, “Are you asking if we can go back and change it? I don’t think so, that’s the process of putting it in the budget. I don’t know that we’ve ever done anything like that before.”

After answering numerous questions from the Board of Education, Mr Kortze explained, “This letter is not intended as an ultimatum. There are a lot of other things going on. If we are going to talk about the mechanics of the budget we can’t just look at this one project. The taxpayers approved a level of debt service for the HVAC project. The charter was changed to create a planning authority. There is money the taxpayers encumbered — over $20 million for Fairfield Hills. There are a number of large looming projects ahead of us. This is just a part of the puzzle. We need some firm numbers for those projects [referring to Hawley renovation and the high school expansion]. Don’t work on trying to find a way around it to just do what you want to get done.”

The finance board chairman went on to ask, “Is it [Hawley] your number one project?”

Board of Education member David Nanavaty responded that it was the number one priority for this year.

Mr Kortze replied, “I believe that at a previous Board of Finance meeting your chairperson [Ms McClure] said that it was not.”

Finally Mr Kortze had a suggestion for the Board of Education before coming to the Board of Finance on October 27. “Isn’t it smarter to proceed by sitting down and mapping out all the projects needed to be done and the expenses of each and then prioritize them?”

School board member Paul Mangiafico stated, “We’ve got to bite the bullet and prioritize. We need to get the number for Hawley down to $3.3 and we need to get moving. We’ve got to attach a number on the high school expansion.”

Ms McClure thanked Mr Kortze for attending the school board meeting, and she assured him saying, “We are doing all that we can to adhere to this letter.” She confirmed that the Board of Education planned to have a meeting to go over and prioritize items prior its meeting later this month with the Board of Finance.

Dr Pitkoff stated that the district is asking the engineers to redesign the Hawley project without the air conditioning and to look at options for climate control.

During the public participation portion of the meeting Richard Gaines stated that he has two children at Hawley and that he was in support of the HVAC project and was concerned about putting it off.

Hawley parent Tammy Nelson agreed saying that she wants to see the HVAC project go forward. “If it is put off I’m afraid it won’t be done for a long time. The high school project is important but is in the future.”