School District Eyeing Canaan House For Office Space

By Jeff White

The Newtown School District is planning to move out of its current Queen Street offices, and is looking at Canaan House on the property of Fairfield Hills to temporarily house it.

The Newtown Board of Education has earmarked nearly $30,000 in its proposed operating budget for the relocation, which was initially planned for part of the JP McGuire building currently under construction across from the high school. Leasing part of this building was desirable for the district because of its proximity to the high school, and the possibility of finding future uses for the space if the district decided to relocate again.

“I think our initial preference was to lease the space across from the high school,” Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed said this week. However, Dr Reed added, in terms of an economical place to relocate the district’s central office, the suggestion of Canaan House could save the town $50,000.

When First Selectman Herb Rosenthal saw that the school board had budgeted for a possible move to the JP McGuire building, he thought that it might make more financial sense if the district took up residence along with other town agencies in Canaan House, which the town leases from the State Department of Public Works.

The space under consideration is directly across from the area the town currently occupies with the offices of the Building Commission, Planing and Zoning, Health District, and Parks and Recreation. The floor plan of the two wings is almost identical.

Currently, Dr Reed and other district officials are doing their research, assessing what will need to be done in terms of computer systems, air conditioning, and a telephone service in the wing.

The purpose for the relocation is to free up the district’s current office space so that it can be turned into classrooms for the middle school. The district plans to move out toward the latter part of this summer, and be in place in its new offices by the start of school in the fall.

The area currently occupied by the district will start to be converted into classrooms as soon as it is vacated, but is not expected to be ready for student use until the fall of 2001. Dominic Posca, the buildings and grounds supervisor for the district, will be acting as the general contractor for that middle school renovation, enabling the district to save close to $100,000 on the project.

Still, if the school district takes up residence in Canaan House, Dr Reed said that it would be far from a permanent move. “Canaan House to me is a temporary solution,” he said.

“[It would have] to be cleared by the State Department of Public Works,” First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said Wednesday afternoon. “I presume that the state will allow us to do it.” Mr Rosenthal said that the move made good financial sense. “That’s why I recommended it, because I thought that it would save the taxpayers money.”

Dr Reed also announced this week that he hoped to house an “alternative learning style program” within the space the district is considering in Canaan House. For the few students that go out of district to get their education needs met, this would mean they could attend school in Newtown, and the financial savings this would create would help pay for the program.