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12/23/2015 08:30 AMThe Board of Education released its first plans for the possible reconfiguration and renovation of the Madison public schools last Tuesday evening. Options ranging from simple maintenance work to the construction of a new school were introduced along with relative costs.
Eight options were presented to the public and members of the Board of Finance and Board of Selectmen who were included in the meeting. The options are the result of a year’s worth of information compiled through the school utilization study.
Superintendent of School Thomas Scarice encouraged the public to think of the eight options in groups or families.
“The family model is how we kind of looked at it,” he said. “One group is we do nothing but just the basic maintenance. The second grouping would be keeping our six schools, but taking away all of the temporary trailer classrooms that we have. The next group looks at a two elementary [school] model, and then the last family group talks about returning a number of [school buildings] to the town in the effort of building a new school.”
Eight Options to be Considered
Option one is considered maintenance only and would see to the plumbing, electrical, and mechanical needs of all of the school facilities and would have a relative cost of roughly $49- to $54 million.
Option two is maintenance and additions, which would improve the existing structures and remove the temporary trailers from the schools. The relative cost would be $97- to $107 million and no school facilities would be retired.
Option three and option four would retire either Island Avenue or Ryerson elementary school and move to a K to 3 model with Brown middle school serving grades 4 to 6 and Polson middle school serving grades 7 and 8. Both plans carry an initial relative cost of $95- to $105 million.
Option five and option six would retire the pre-school, Town Campus Learning Center, and either Island Avenue or Ryerson elementary school. In these models, Jeffery elementary would serve pre-K to grade 2, Brown middle school would serve grades 3 t 6, and Polson middle school would serve grades 6 to 8. The relative costs of these two plans range from $85- to $95 million.
Option seven would involve the retirement of all of the town elementary schools and the construction of a new middle school. The current Polson facility would serve as the elementary school with grades pre-K to 2, Brown would serve grades 3 to 5, and then a new middle school would serve grades 6 to 8. The relative estimated cost would be $99- to $110 million.
The final option, option eight, would also retire all of the existing elementary school buildings in favor of building a new, centralized elementary school. Brown would then serve grades 3 to 5 and Polson would serve grades 6 to 8. The relative estimated cost of the final plan is $81- to $90 million.
No option currently under consideration would affect the organization of Daniel Hand High School. In options two through eight, all schools left online with the exception of Brown, Town Campus Learning Center, and Hand would undergo extensive renovations.
BOE Stresses Costs Are Relative
With a number of options on the table, providing specific budget numbers aren’t possible at this point in the process according to Scarice. As the three boards work to narrow down options, exact numbers will begin to follow.
“As we narrow down options, we will be able to get much more specific,” he said. “It is hard to have the architects price out all the variables of the eight different options.” Once the options are narrowed down, it will be possible to take a deeper look at the remaining options, he said.
The relative numbers provided are estimated after anticipated state reimbursement.
“They are very subject to change and they are more valuable as a comparative measure than as precise one,” he said. “They are not budget numbers; they could be lower, they could be higher.”
First Selectman Tom Banisch reinforced that the preliminary numbers should not be seen as worrisome.
“First of all, it’s good to know we have a lot of options,” he said. “They are all fairly expensive, but the good part is they don’t all happen immediately, they are over a period of years, so I think that gives us a lot of room to maneuver.”
In considering the options, the boards will seek appraisals of the different school facilities and land parcels to facilitate future cost-benefit analysis.
Scarice said the Board of Education will look at appraisals for Island Avenue Elementary School, the Lasage property located on Copse Road that is available for purchase, as well as the value of the land behind Brown middle school and Ryerson elementary school.
Despite a lack of concrete financial information, Scarice said he and the Board of Education wanted to release this information to the public to keep the channels of communication open.
“The consultants we are working with now have done this with a number of towns and have a lot of experience in the different ways you can present this to a community,” he said. “I believe that the three boards are committed to presenting the entire plan to the community so that there is clear transparency and communication as to what the long term vision is.”
Scarice said the need for the study and a long-term plan for the facilities is threefold: declining enrollment, deterioration of school facilities, and fundamental changes in instruction and how kids learn today.
So far this year, six public forums have been held to allow for public input on the process. Concerns over cost, geography, and grade configuration have been popular topics for parents.
The Board of Education along with the input from the Board of Finance and the Board of Selectmen are aiming to have dramatically narrowed down the options by mid- to late spring 2016, after budget season.
Banisch said he’s not worried if the process takes a bit longer.
“I think because it is a complex issue, I wouldn’t mind if it went a little longer than that,” he said. “But by the same token, if we get through a good analysis of all the options and everything is moving smoothly, I have no problem with it moving quickly.”
A plan for the facilities needs to be prepared and presented to the state for reimbursement by June 2017. A local referendum would be held in May 2017.
“We are trying to do this so far in advance so that everybody has a chance to offer their thoughts, opinions, and concerns,” Scarice said.