$6 Million More Needed For NHS Expansion

By John Voket

Just four months after local taxpayers approved the largest single municipal project appropriation ever to underwrite the expansion of Newtown High School, taxpayers may be facing a request to come up with $6 million more.

And even if a special appropriation request makes it to referendum, possibly as early as October, the town will not be getting the project promised in a massive townwide PR program mounted earlier this year by supporters — and paid for in part by the project’s architects.

Since last Monday, in a series of private and public meetings culminating with the school board Thursday evening after The Newtown Bee went to print, it has become clear to School Superintendent Janet Robinson that the project will require approximately $6.045 million more.

On Monday, Dr Robinson called a closed door meeting with a group of elected leaders and town officials to determine the process by which a special appropriation moves forward. Then, on Tuesday, the Public Building and Site Commission, which is charged with overseeing the project on behalf of the town, heard a report from Ed Barrett, the director of preconstruction for the project with the Morganti Group.

Mr Barrett’s latest report detailed the potential selection of qualified bidders for various segments of the project, which if completed, would provide education space for as many as 2,022 students at the high school. During that meeting he circulated a memo indicating that after all bids are factored, the “total as-bid with alternates” adds up to $47,621,454.

And while the project is currently under consideration, including alternates like a new artificial turf field for the Blue and Gold Stadium, the superintendent said one significant component of the original plan has already been scrapped.

“The ‘green roof’ is gone,” Dr Robinson said, referring to one part of the plan approved by voters April 22. She said that dropping the $60,000 rooftop garden was among many aspects of the overall project that have already been refined to trim costs.

“I really want people to know a lot of work is going into finding cost savings,” Dr Robinson said, adding that district officials are “trying to find savings without being silly about it.”

She said the refining process has included “changing materials in the handrails.”

“But nothing is coming down to enormous amounts,” the superintendent said.

Dr Robinson acknowledged that bringing a modified high school expansion back to taxpayers for $6 million more, provided the Boards of Finance and Selectmen and the Legislative Council pass the appropriation proposal, amounts to clearing “massive hurdles.”

“I know some will look at this and say, ‘We’re in bad economic times and we’re not going to spend another dime.’ And others might suggest that since the timeline [to complete the expansion for the incoming freshmen class in September 2009] is blown, why don’t we take more time or redesign,” Dr Robinson said. “But we clearly need the space, and taking off a couple of classrooms will not save much money.”

Dr Robinson said if the project is forced back to the drawing board, the district will lose its design reimbursement from the state. And delays already forecast for the project have her office scrambling to find ways to accommodate what she called “the first wave” of incoming freshmen that will strain the already overcrowded facility.

Finance Board

‘Concerned’

If the school board agrees to move a special appropriation forward, the first elected body that is required to review and recommend the additional spending is the Board of Finance. Its chairman, John Kortze, told The Bee this week that members are not only concerned about the added financial burden, but the timeline for completion as well.

Mr Kortze said that finance board members were asking school officials to entertain additional lower cost contingencies and a scalable multiphase expansion during deliberations on the original $41 million proposal.

“We were begging for a ‘Plan B,’ some type of scalable option,” Mr Kortze said. “If we got that, we wouldn’t going this route today.”

Me Kortze called the prospect of moving additional money forward for the project “an uphill climb with my board.”

“I encourage the Board of Education to present alternatives,” Mr Kortze concluded. That sentiment was echoed by Republican Selectman Paul Mangiafico, who served on the school board during most of the preliminary work on the high school expansion proposal.

“I think having a backup plan is a wise tactic,” he said. “But if there are items taken out from the original referendum, the Board of Education has to let us know the total equivalent number.”

Mr Mangiafico, who coincidentally advocated for a $47 million budget for the project while serving on the school board, said he became very concerned over comments made leading up to the original referendum last spring, that the bids could conceivably come in lower than the $38.8 million being requested for the construction phase.

“It’s premature to react, but I am not surprised the numbers came in higher than what was approved by the voters,” Mr Mangiafico said, adding that he will require a truthful accounting of what taxpayers will get in the final project if they are asked to appropriate another $6 million.

Advocates Want

‘The Truth’

Incoming Newtown Middle School PTA President Mary Ann Jacob, who helped advocate for the original referendum, agreed that the taxpayers need to have all the facts before considering another appropriation.

“How could estimates be 15 percent off?” Ms Jacob asked. “How could it possibly be that wrong?”

Ms Jacob suggested that former advocates among parents and others in the school community should not be expected to “blindly go back and [advocate] for $6 million more.”

“If I’m going to sell it, I have to understand it,” she said. “We need to get the truth. The Board of Education needs to have a compelling argument.”

School board member Katherine Fetchick said she was hearing a lot of the same sentiment from constituents and parents.

“It’s upsetting that we have come all this way, only to be faced with having to vote to ask for more funds,” Ms Fetchick said. “I’m uncomfortable with that.”

Selectman Herb Rosenthal, who was the school board chair during the last high school expansion project, said by his calculations, after architect fees and soft costs are removed, it appears the cost escalation is closer to 20 percent.

“To be off that much is mind-boggling,” Mr Rosenthal said. “You can’t say all of that is because of asphalt and steel.”

Mr Rosenthal encouraged the school board to be prepared to discuss what taxpayers would get for $38.8 million if the proposal for $6 million more failed.

“I don’t have a clue as to whether or not taxpayers will come back and support $6 million more,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Council Chair Will Rodgers said he was among the officials attending Dr Robinson’s Monday meeting. He said in that meeting, and in subsequent calls to education officials, he encouraged all parties to highlight all cost reductions and value engineering that has already been obtained.

“They need to give serious consideration to decreasing the scope of the project, if possible,” Mr Rodgers said. “The economy has slipped quite a bit since the original appropriation [in April 2008], so it would be wise to realize that as they move the project forward.”