School Board Decides On Gym Expansion

By Laurie Borst

The Board of Education reviewed at its Tuesday evening meeting a presentation by Joe Costa and Matthew Holst from Fletcher Thompson, the design architects, and Ed Barrett of Morganti Group, addressing the gym expansion aspect of the high school renovation project.

Mr Costa began by outlining the program goals: build a ninth grade center, improve circulation throughout the building, alleviate overcrowding, minimize student disruption, meet schedule and meet budget of $41.5 million.

Two options were under consideration. The first is to expand the existing gymnasium, which has had no renovations since the school opened in the early 1970s. This option could cause some disruption to classes during the construction work.

The second option, suggested several months ago by the Building and Site Commission, is to build a free-standing gymnasium connected to the main building by a corridor. This would allow classes to continue uninterrupted during construction. Classes would then be held in the new gym while the old gym underwent minimal renovations.

This second option would add approximately $4.1 million to the cost of the expansion and push the total square footage over the maximum allowed by the state for full reimbursement.

Mr Costa stressed the need to decide quickly on which approach the board wishes to take in order to stay on schedule.

“We looked at Option G-2 previously and determined it was cost prohibitive. We need to meet the $41.5 which was approved by the legislative council,” said board member David Nanavaty.

Board members Paul Mangiafico and Lillian Bittmann concurred with Mr Nanavaty.

The board voted unanimously to proceed with Option G-1 which includes renovating and expanding the existing gym.

The architects also presented computer-generated renderings of the exterior of the addition. As the addition will have a southwesterly exposure, that outside wall features extensive windows. Eyebrow shades on the exterior would block sun during early fall and late spring when the sun was high in the sky and would allow sunlight to enter and warm the rooms in the winter when it was lower on the horizon. “Green design” will be considered throughout the design phases, Mr Costa assured the board.

Recycling Policy Raised

In other business, the board received a first draft of a policy regarding recycling in the schools. Recently, questions raised by members of the community and an article in The Newtown Bee brought to light that there was no consistent recycling policy being applied to Newtown’s seven public school buildings.

In 1991, recycling became mandatory for both residential, commercial, and public buildings throughout the state of Connecticut. The board will discuss and vote on the policy at its next meeting.

During his Superintendent’s Report, Tom Jokubaitis acknowledged two high school teachers for their achievements this summer.

Candace Dietter, NHS English department chair, served on the Interdisciplinary Writing Content Advisory Committee which helped develop scoring materials for the Interdisciplinary Writing component of the Connecticut academic Performance Test (CAPT).

Kristin Violette, NHS computer teacher, was selected as a Connecticut Career Choices Teaching Fellow by the 21st Century Skills at Education Connecticut. She will pilot an Information Technology Research and Design course this school year.

Director of Business, Rona Bienkowski reported a positive balance of $1,474 in unexpended year-end funds to be returned to town. Unliquidated encumbrances from 2005–2006 fiscal year returned $18,751. School generated fees brought in $127,492, $9,692 more than the $117,800 budgeted. These funds return to the town.