State Aid Could Make Option

To Buy Modular Classrooms Reality

By Tanjua Damon

The Newtown Board of Education is considering whether the district should continue to lease the modular classrooms that are currently located at Sandy Hook School or exercise their right to purchase them. State aid toward the purchase could make the decision easier.

Representative Julia Wasserman has pushed for a state grant that would provide $118,361 to the cost of purchasing the modulars. The measure has currently passed in the House and the Senate. It is awaiting Governor John Rowland’s signature.

Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed has been leaning toward recommending to the board that the modulars be purchased. The modulars can be moved to another area to be used. They contain four classrooms, a conference room, and bathrooms, as well as air conditioning.

“It seems like a tremendous buy for the town. The Legislative Council wasn’t able to provide us with any assistance, so we are looking internally,” Dr Reed said. “It just seems from a dollars and cents point of view, they are a new generation of construction. The state grant is the only way it makes sense to buy them.”

The classrooms were needed at Sandy Hook School to help alleviate overcrowding at the school. The kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school is home to over 750 students. With the recent passage of the 5/6 school, it will be almost two years before some of the overcrowding can be alleviated.

“These classrooms were needed to accommodate significant increases in student enrollment at Sandy Hook Elementary School. They enable the school to keep fourth grade class sizes at levels most conducive to learning,” Rep Wasserman said. “This grant also reduces the cost of installing the portable classrooms to local taxpayers. It is an appropriate use of state funds.”

When the modular classrooms were installed, the district contracted a three-year lease agreement with an option to buy after one year. The modular classrooms were installed at Sandy Hook in July 2000. The total cost to lease the modulars for three years is $282,293.

If the district opted to purchase the modulars, the cost would be $323,900. The district has just about paid a year’s lease payment of $87,576. With the proposed state grant of $118,361, the district could purchase the modulars for $293,115, just over $10,000 more than the cost of leasing them.

In order to be cost effective, the school board would have to decide whether or not to purchase the modulars sometime in July. The board will meet on July 10 for its summer meeting.