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School facility master plan
Windham, Conn. —
Windham, Conn. —
Decades of neglect are catching up to the Windham schools, and the plan to fix them comes with a hefty price tag.
The Board of Education approved a 10-year facilities master plan that will require renovations to every building in the district and cost about $176.2 million, which will be spread over three phases.
“This is what we need to do to have our schools in adequate condition,” said board member Nancy Tinker, who is the director of facilities at Eastern Connecticut State University. “It may not be a 10-year plan. It may take 15 or 20 years. Or maybe the economy will turn around in five years, and we’ll have plenty of money to bond.”
The price tag would not be the burden of the town alone, said Bob Roche, of Friar Associates, the firm that worked with the board to create the plan. The state reimbursement was maximized with each planned project, Roche said, meaning many of the projects would receive 80 percent of their funding from the state. Roche said he will present the Board of Finance with an estimate of the town’s portion of the funding at its Jan. 16 meeting.
The first phase of the three-phase plan would include repairing the roof at Natchaug Elementary School at a cost of $1.36 million. There would also be renovations to Windham High School, which was last renovated in the 1980s, including a new roof and science classrooms. The plan also calls for moving the Board of Education offices to the high school in order to maximize the state reimbursement, Roche said.
The largest part of phase one would be an addition to Sweeney Elementary School, the only one of the district’s elementary schools that has land around it to accommodate an expansion. The $30.3 million expansion would add 35,000 square feet to the building.
Superintendent Ana Ortiz said each elementary school is now overcrowded and the addition of the new magnet STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) school will not create extra space in the elementary grades.
Roche said the expansion and the Natchaug roof project are integral portions of the plan to ensure the current situation, in which Windham Middle School is housing both the middle school and Natchaug Elementary School, does not continue.
Board of Education Chairman Murphy Sewall said by renovating the Natchaug roof, the district would be able to consolidate Sweeney and Natchaug into one larger school down the road, then use Natchaug as swing space as other schools are renovated. Otherwise schools would be stuck in the middle school, where limited space often means the elementary students do not leave their classrooms all day.
Board members John French and Mike Desaulnier both voted against the plan, saying the town simply could not afford it.
Tracy Lambert, chairman of the school planning and design committee, said beyond the physical state of the buildings, the district is also not doing its job in ensuring students have appropriate academic environments.
“That’s our first job, and we’re not doing it without a plan,” Lambert said.
Read more: Windham school board OKs $176M school renovation plan - Norwich, CT - The Bulletin http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x1058230227/Windham-school-board-OKs-176M-school-renovation-plan#ixzz2HxzWrMfU
Master Plan
http://www.windham.k12.ct.us/downloads/about/Windham_School_Buildings-Exec_Summaries.pdf
Mansfield: 2 new school & do over for middle school at 1/3 the cost of windham
Feb 20 2013
School project future mulled by town, school leaders
By MICHELLE FIRESTONE
Chronicle Staff Writer
MANSFIELD — The board of education and town council will soon discuss priorities for maintenance work at the school buildings, with a joint meeting between the two boards scheduled for later this month.
That meeting will occur Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 6: 30 p. m., in the council chambers of the Audrey P. Beck Municipal Building.
It addresses a preliminary, $65.7 million proposal involving the construction of two new elementary schools at the Annie E. Vinton and Dorothy C. Goodwin sites, with renovations done to the middle school.
Southeast Elementary School would close, with the future use of that building to be determined by town officials.
Based on the preliminary proposal, the town anticipated $29.8 million in state reimbursement funds, less than half the project.
Citing cost concerns, however, the town council Jan. 23 opted to put off sending the project to a town vote.
Part of that vote, however, called for the council and school board to meet to address long-term maintenance and educational needs at the four schools.
“We do need to have a plan put together to move forward as fast as we can with our schools,” said Mansfield Board of Education Chairman Mark LaPlaca. “ We waited long enough.”
“We have had a good relationship with the board of education and I want them to understand why we did what we did,” said Mansfield Mayor Elizabeth “Betsy” Paterson.
Town officials are hopeful both boards can iron out a plan of action.
“ I hope the council and the board are able to communicate with one another and come away from the meeting with a good understanding of the next steps going forward,” said Mansfield Town Manager Matthew Hart.
Paterson said she is hoping the economy will pick up and said the project would likely be revisited if and when it does.
At the Feb. 11 town council meeting, the council discussed the impact Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed budget would have on Mansfield.
His two-year proposal includes the elimination of Payment in Lieu of Taxes funds, which were instead rolled into the town’s Education Cost Sharing grant.
As a result, the ECS grant was increased from $10,156,014 this year to $17,199,408 next year, an increase of slightly more than $7 million.
While the PILOT funding losses are offset by an increase in the ECS funds, town officials are concerned about the long- term ramifications of lost PILOT dollars.
Mansfield, home to the University of Connecticut, receives more PILOT funds than most towns. PILOT monies are aimed at reimbursing towns for state- owned property, which is not taxable.
“I think the governor’s message just reinforces that we did the right thing,” said Paterson.
Meanwhile, the school board seeks clarity on whether maintenance and other improvements should be done over the long-term or short-term.
It will come up with a list of priorities for such projects.
LaPlaca said the district doesn’t want to do repairs that would make a construction project a “moot point.”
One such project is repairs to the school roofs, which School/ Town Facilities Director William Hammon has said will cost approximately $1 million for each building.
Paterson said the council is looking for the district to do “short-term maintenance that can keep the schools up and running for another five to six years.”
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