Building Commission Endorses 5/6 School Site

By Jeff White

The Newtown Board of Education’s proposed 5/6 school gained a valuable endorsement recently from the town’s Public Building and Site Commission (PBSC), which formally supported the use of the Watertown Hall site for the new school.

In its last meeting, the building commission voted unanimously to recommend that the Board of Education go ahead with designing their 5/6 school for Watertown Hall, instead of continuing with dual designs for Watertown Hall and another possible site at Fairfield Hills.

The motion to recommend that Watertown Hall be the site for the new school carried with it a stipulation that “no funds from this project be expended for a site other than that presently owned by the town,” according to the minutes from the meeting.

“You just can’t design a school for one site, and move it to another,” Frank Krasnickas, the chairman of the commission, said Thursday morning. Mr Krasnickas mentioned that it was problematic for the school district to continue designing a school for two sites, since he believed a school could not be easily switched between Watertown Hall and Fairfield Hills.

Mr Krasnickas added that the reasons why the commission supported the use of Watertown Hall was mainly due to time and money. If the school is tied to Fairfield Hills, significant delays would occur as the town makes its decision whether or not to purchase the property, and what to do with the property if it is purchased. Moreover, Mr Krasnickas pointed out that a school on the core campus of the former state mental hospital would carry with it significantly more demolition costs.

In its meeting Wednesday night, the Board of Education opted to forgo an official vote on the 5/6 school issue and instead draft a letter to First Selectman Herb Rosenthal later this week confirming Watertown Hall as the final site for the new facility.

Mr Rosenthal expressed his desire to hear the school board’s reaction from a recent meeting with the architects and project managers for its school project. During that meeting, school designers said that the time had come to make a firm commitment on the school’s final resting site.

Mr Rosenthal will have to ask the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission to rezone Watertown Hall for a school.

The purpose of the 5/6 school’s project manager is essentially to act like an arm for the town’s Public Building and Site Commission, which will continue to stay updated on the project’s developments. As Mr Krasnickas said this week, “We’re just along for the ride.”