This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
12/03/2018 11:00 PMIn the spring the Board of Education (BOE) unveiled its 10-plus year capital maintenance plan for the district. Over the life of the plan, there are dozens of projects at each school building and the total cost comes in at a whopping $100 million. Facing that price tag, town and school officials have been meeting regularly to explore if there is maybe a better way forward.
The long-term capital maintenance plan, which can be viewed in full with this story at Zip06.com, ranges from fiscal year 2018-’19 to fiscal year 2032–’33; the projects are divided by building. The BOE voted on June 19 to send the next five years’ worth of projects forward to the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Committee and Board of Selectmen (BOS) for their consideration. Those five years of projects alone total roughly $61 million.
However, school officials have emphasized that all of the projects listed don’t do anything to upgrade the schools in terms of new features to match current teaching—it’s things like new boilers or new HVAC systems, projects designed to keep the old school buildings up and running. Since $100 million is a lot of money to spend on maintenance, a new tri-board working group was formed about two months ago to explore what other options might be out there for the buildings.
The group includes two members of the BOE, two from the BOS, and two from the Board of Finance (BOF). On Nov. 27, the group held a public forum at Ryerson Elementary School to start sharing with parents and community members what work has gone on so far and start to gauge what things are important to the public.
“The goal of that tri-board is really clear,” said Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice. “Are there any other additional options beyond what is out there right now? The projects haven’t gone away, so the HVAC system or the boiler at Jeffrey we put off for two years needs to be replaced at some point. That’s just one of many things we need to think about.”
Scarice said the group is looking at this issue not just as a BOE problem, but as a town problem as well—something that everyone has to come together to solve. Additionally, Scarice said the schools are not in the state they are now because of a lack of maintenance work. He said there has been excellent maintenance over the years, but at a certain point it just becomes very difficult to keep with an aging building.
When looking at possible solutions, Scarice said the group is trying to keep in mind the need to protect town assets, have schools that matter the learning environments of the time, have a fiscally responsible plan, and remember that the schools are one part of the overall town plan and budgets.
“There are going to be tradeoffs,” he said. “There is no denying that there is no perfect solution and that is the purpose of an evening like tonight, to get the value statements from the community so, when we do have tradeoffs, that we are truly aligning those tradeoffs with what the community is saying.”
To get a sense of what the community wants to see in its schools, Scarice sad there will be more public forums like this in which residents may participate. He also noted that there will be forums at places like the senior center.
“We are trying to reach different demographics and get feedback so when we move forward with a plan, there is a good consensus,” he said.
Following Scarice’s introduction, the 80 residents in attendance were asked to move around the room and weigh in on various topics. Topics included issues like security, tax impact, size and location of schools, and transportation, and some newer topics like considering multi-use schools buildings.
“I was an urban principal for a while and my school was a school, but it was a lot more than that,” Scarice said. “It was also a community health center and it served a lot of different functions at night for different demographics. So do suburban towns like Madison start to look at our facilities differently in 2018. This is a newer concept that we haven’t really talked about.”
Folks made their way around the room and covered each topic board with Post-It note ideas. Some topics saw familiar issues surface again, like the competing desires of having neighborhood schools or a large, centralized elementary school, but other topics brought in some new ideas. The group put out one blank sheet for residents to share any ideas and residents said a lot about wanting green buildings, others wanted things at the high school fixed, and one person went so far as to suggest another referendum on replacing or renovating schools.
All of the feedback will be compiled by the administration. Scarice said he was thrilled with the turnout and hopes people stay engaged with this process. The tri-board group has to make a presentation on a possible solution or solutions to the full boards by April 1. Scarice said there will be plenty of opportunity for more public input between then and now.
The next public forums are scheduled for January. More information can be found on the district website www.madison.k12.ct.us.