Board Of Education

Sets Its Priorities

By Susan Coney

At the end of an extremely lengthy meeting Tuesday night, the Board of Education took up the issue of listing its priorities for the upcoming capital improvement plan (CIP).

The discussion came after members had listened to lengthy school improvement plan presentations given by all seven building principals and assistant principals and a presentation given by architectural design firm consultants from Fletcher Thompson regarding the high school expansion.

The board was deadlocked for a time, three-to-three, over which project to place at the top of the priority list: the Hawley School heating, ventilation, and air condition (HVAC) renovation work, which falls in the 2005 CIP and came in $2.1 million over budget, or the high school expansion. Comments by Assistant Superintendent Alice Jackson, however, tipped the vote in favor of placing the Hawley project at the top of the list.

Ms Jackson said, “Both are equally important. The high school is in a crisis from crowding. We need to do more planning with that and it will require a lot of creativity in the planning. I go to Hawley and I go into the classrooms that are 80 to 85 degrees on a day that is 30 degrees outside. They open a window to try to cool the room off and then the ones sitting next to the window are disrupted by the cold air.”

The assistant superintendent observed, “Both the high school and Hawley have problems that interfere with instruction. Hawley can be alleviated immediately, it is more of a quick fix. Also those kids are younger and it really impacts their learning in the first, second, and third grades.”

Superintendent Pitkoff agreed, saying, “The high school is a growing crisis. I would have to go with Hawley as the number one priority otherwise I don’t think it will be done.”

Just after midnight, the board listed the project priorities as follows: the Hawley HVAC project at a cost of $5.46 million; the high school expansion with a preliminary cost estimate of $41 million; Newtown Middle School HVAC at a projected cost of $4.48 million; Sandy Hook Elementary HVAC at a cost of $2.43 million; Middle Gate HVAC at a projected cost of $923,000; the middle school roof repair at a cost of $750,000; and the middle school renovation of the cafeteria and auditorium a cost of $18 million.

‘We Will Have The Answers’

During the board’s long discussion of the priority list, board member David Nanavity once again brought up the possibility of bypassing the Board of Finance and taking the Hawley project directly to the Legislative Council for consideration.

Fellow member Paul Mangiafico said, “If we submit Hawley to either board at $5.4 million it will never fly.”

Member Tom Gissen expressed genuine concern that the Board of Education had to decide between two projects that were so different in scope and cost and both greatly needed to help alleviate true educational concerns. He agreed with Mr Mangiafico regarding the feasibility of the Hawley HVAC being passed by the Board of Finance.

“When something comes in at 60 percent over cost, we as managers have to find out answers as to why,” Mr Gissen said. “It is a credibility issue. Why should they [the town] believe that the high school projected at $41 million won’t come in at $60 million. We have to do a postmortem on why Hawley was so high.”

Chairperson Elaine McClure assured him saying, “We will have the answers.”

“I think Paul and Tom are right,” board member Andrew Buzzi said. “They [the Board of Finance] need to get some good answers as to why these numbers are so off. These are legitimate questions.”

Business director Ron Bienkowski told the board that “the Board of Finance has options to finance this project. I’m not going to ask that question at Thursday night’s meeting [with the Board of Finance on October 27], but I think someone should.”

The school board members remained hopeful that the Board of Finance would consider approval of the Hawley HVAC project as proposed. If the lowest bid of $5.4 million is not accepted by December 1 the bid will expire.