Date: Fri 03-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

schools-state-reimbursement

Full Text:

School Board Applies For State Reimbursement For New School

The Newtown Board of Education has delivered an application for reimbursement

for a proposed fifth- and sixth-grade school with a projected enrollment of

1,000 students.

This application was delivered to the State Education Office in Hartford on

Monday June 29, to meet the June 30 deadline.

The application allows Newtown to get in line for reimbursement from the

state, but does not commit Newtown to proceed with these plans, or any plans,

for the school.

At this stage in the application process, projected building costs are not

required and were not listed.

The application for reimbursement refers to the Space Needs Committee

recommendations for a new fifth/sixth-grade school in Newtown.

It details instructional objectives for the fifth/sixth-grade school and

provides a proposed school model for meeting those objectives.

The application states that the "major organization for instruction in fifth

grade will be self-contained classrooms for core academic areas, with an

individual teacher or two-teacher teams. In sixth grade, the two-teacher team

is envisioned to be the focus. However, the school design must be flexible

enough to accommodate other reasonable organizational patterns for the

delivery of instruction."

This initial proposal calls for a 148,000 square foot school with 55

instructional areas including classrooms, labs, art studios, a 125-seat

lecture hall, and a 500-seat auditorium.

Specifications and proposed costs would be expected by the state office toward

the end of 1998.