At his first Board of Education meeting July 11, new Facilities Director John Barlow said “a lot has happened” since he came on board a month ago, including addressing the district’s capital plan.

He said a few adjustments needed to be made, mostly because of cost increases, and a few projects were moved around the anticipated time line.

A few items on the plan prompted abundant discussion from the board: the chillers at Reed Intermediate School, the HVAC system at Newtown Middle School, and the pool at Newtown High School.

The first item that was moved involves repairs to the Reed Intermediate School chillers, costing approximately $400,000. That project was moved from this to next year in the five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).

“We think we can get through another year plus with what we have, and that’s why we’ve moved this out to year three,” said Finance Director Tanja Vadas.

Purchasing new chillers would cost over a million dollars according to Barlow, with exact pricing unknown. Barlow said the existing chillers have been in the school since it was built in 2002.

Board Member Todd Higgins said he did not find a “super compelling case” to pay to fix the chillers with a warranty of ten years versus advocating to buy new units.

Barlow explained the town of Newtown has a budget, and there were major items such as the Newtown Middle School HVAC system and the pool at Newtown High School that needed to be addressed.

“You could have a potential bonding year that could exceed $30 million,” Barlow said, regarding addressing all of these needs at once — adding the district has to work within a budget.

Higgins said Barlow is perhaps right, but the analysis may be altered if the cost of postponing means the district will spend another million and a half dollars instead of just spending $600,000 now.

Vadas said there was a possibility the repaired chillers could last longer than ten years, and the district is trying to keep the budget “somewhat even,” while the middle school HVAC project is going to be “big no matter what.”

Vadas confirmed it gets “bigger” every year it is postponed.

Middle School HVAC

The second item to be scrutinized was HVAC improvements needed at Newtown Middle School.

“In the current year there was $450,000 approved, and we have to go out to an RFP process to hire an engineer to start that engineering,” said Barlow.

The facilities director explained the $8 million allocated for year three had escalated to $12 million, and was pushed out to year five.

“The only reason why is because the engineering is really going to drive what happens and how much the costs actually are,” said Barlow. “We really don’t know.”

Barlow explained that Hawley School renovations represented an $8 million project, and NMS is three times the size of that neighboring elementary school.

He said the district needs to get through the engineering process in order to understand what it will look like and the cost to do air quality improvements in the larger building.

He described the $12 million earmark in year five as “sort of a placeholder at this point.” Barlow confirmed there would be a bid for an engineering study that would take the majority of the next school year.

Board Member Dan Cruson expressed concerns about the project being pushed to “year five,” and suggesting schools like Middle Gate would not have HVAC issues addressed until the next five-year cycle.

Barlow said the shift out in the CIP provides an opportunity to develop pricing with the engineer; to secure a “good set” of estimates and plans; and to define the project’s “contingency.”

“Another consideration would be, where would all the students go?” asked Vadas, who said the board learned a lot from Hawley. She added that moving the project up is “probably easier” than moving it out in the CIP timeline.

Barlow reminded the board that the plan was a draft, and was open to discussion. He said if the process is done in April, there may be time to receive certain grant funding from the state before a June 30 deadline. He said there was also some available money in the HVAC grant.

School board member John Vouros suggested Barlow give those who will be hired the date to conduct the process. Barlow said they would be aware of the deadlines for applying for grants.

Vouros said he started teaching locally in 1968, and it had been 55 years since this project first started being discussed. He was concerned that without it being carried out, it would be postponed again.

“I ask that you go there tomorrow in upper A-Wing, and sit there for five minutes, and feel that heat,” Vouros said.

“I don’t disagree,” said Barlow, who added he “would never want to push a project through just for the sake of pushing it through.”

“I want it to be absolutely appropriate, the best that it can be, and best for the taxpayers of Newtown,” Barlow said.

Barlow said the project is extensive, and that if the children could be taken out of the building for a school year, it could possibly be completed in a year. He added “phasing projects” are a mess in these scenarios, and could take a couple of years. He described the building as “sprawling” with “a lot to it.”

“There is a risk that if you do push [the project] out, that we lose our slot because that money would then be directed somewhere else,” added school board Chair Deborra Zukowski, also expressing concern regarding the time frame of the HVAC renovation.

Zukowski recommended Vadas and Barlow talk to Newtown Finance Director Bob Tait about the bonding calculus regarding this type of project.

NHS Pool Maintenance

Barlow, a CPO-certified operator, said the project to replace the HVAC over the swimming pool was already in the capital plan for $400,000, but after reviewing the pool facility himself, he found more necessary work required to fix the pool.

The facilities director said the pool bottom has been painted for many years, and the layers of paint are thick and “peeling off of the pool’s surface into the water,” so it needs to be sandblasted off at minimum. He said adding tiles would mean the surface of the pool would be maintenance free.

Barlow also said “the main drains are at the end of their usable life” and would need to be replaced. He said they are looking to get rid of a dangerous acid injection system that helps manage the pH of the pool, adding this system makes the pool the most dangerous room in the (NHS) facility.

The facilities director said custodians are currently receiving training to become commercial pool operators to help the pool be maintained properly.

Barlow said the total pool refurbishing costs would be $830,000. The estimated cost, according to Barlow, came from a trustworthy and reputable company he has dealt with many times before.

The number was factored with enough cushion in case the project was going to be pushed out past this year and into the next, Barlow added.

Vadas said the pool was installed in the 1960s or ‘70s, and major work has not been done on the pool since then.

“We need to make this right, so that was my reasoning for pushing this up to where it is,” said Barlow.

Higgins asked if the district should consider whether or not it should have a pool.

Superintendent of Schools Chris Melillo said the district used the community center pool when the high school pool was having mechanical issues. He said there would be conflict issues with scheduling, and students could get forced to be at the pool early in the morning or late at night.

“My experiences with high schools is when you start going off campus, you do lose the phys-ed component, and you do lose the special education component,” the superintendent said, adding that the community center pool may be solely in use by the athletic teams.

“It has to be heated all the time, it does absorb a lot of maintenance dollars, but you have it, and I would not advocate to get rid of it since you have it,” said Barlow, adding he fully supported making the repairs.

“My understanding is the pool is in use every single day, not only for the swim team — and they do offer a certified lifeguard program as part of the PE program,” said Assistant Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti.

“The summary is we’ve increased four million dollars on the HVAC; we’ve increased 1.35 million dollars on the high school,” Zukowski said toward the end of the presentation, adding there were minor decreases made in paving projects.

“We want to make sure that we document exactly the reasoning and we provide very good discussion, because I will tell you that our fellow members of other boards are not necessarily going to be all that happy,” she said. “On the other hand, a strong case is always a good thing and a reasoned approach is always a good thing to go in there with.”

During the meeting, the Board of Education also set the tuition for out of district students to be $21,500 for the 2023-2024 school year in a unanimous vote.

The capital plan can be reviewed in the July 11 board minutes for the 2023-2024 school year at newtown.k12.ct.us/BOEAgendaandMinutes.

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Reporter Noelle Veillette can be reached at noelle@thebee.com.