School Bd. Approves CIP—

Hawley, NMS Capital

Projects Delayed

By Eliza Hallabeck

The heating and ventilating system at Hawley School, the flat roof and the slope roof at Newtown Middle School, and the rest of the improvements and additions in the Newtown School System were pushed back a year in priority by the Board of Education at its meeting September 2.

The Capital Improvement Plan established by the Board of Education every year maps out the priorities for improvements in the Newtown School System. Last November the Board of Ed approved a five-year plan, and during the meeting Tuesday night the board amended this plan.

“All these things are place holders,” said School District Business Manager Ronald Bienkowski. “We don’t know what they are really going to cost.”

During the last regular meeting of the school board on August 12, board members discussed switching the priority of two specific projects in the plan. Board member Kathy Fetchick suggested at both meetings that the flat roof at Newtown Middle School be replaced before the heating and ventilating system be placed at Hawley School.

Ms Fetchick said switching the projects would cut costs that will now be needed for extra help with the over budget Newtown High School expansion project. Her motion to pass the amendment to the CIP deadlocked in a 3-3 vote. Richard Gaines, David Nanavaty, and Lillian Bittman voted against it. Board of Education Chair Elaine McClure, Ms Fetchick, and Anna Wiedemann voted for it.

“Having spent the last five years at Hawley, I know it is a horrible place to try and teach the students,” said board member Richard Gaines, who served on the Hawley School Parent Teachers Association (PTA).

Mr Nanavaty said the project at Hawley is already set to go, and the only thing left for it is to go to bid. It is a project that has been needed for a long time, he said, but it was never finished.

Ms Wiedemann asked the school district’s Director of Facilities Gino Faiella, who attended the meeting, what he thought of both projects.

“There’s the educational factor at Hawley,” said Mr Faiella, referring to the high heat and loud noise from open windows and fans that disrupt students at Hawley. “From a building standpoint, I would like to see the roof at the middle school repaired.”

The flat roof has lived its life, Mr Faiella said, and it is done. There are damp spots in it, “but nothing crazy.”

Superintendent Janet Robinson said she is desperate to get the Newtown High School expansion project passed and construction started.

“We want everything for all the students,” said Dr Robinson, “and we want it now. It just isn’t going to work.”

When asked to give her opinion, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda said there are more students that could be affected by the situation at NMS than there are at Hawley.

Near the end of the meeting the board approved the CIP with an additional $550,000 in the first year for “urgent priority” of portables to be adding at the high school. The portables will give the school eight more classrooms, but will take up more parking spaces. With the NHS expansion project the school is already loosing parking spaces, and the use of portables will mean the district will need more buses to make up the difference.

All of the projects in the plan where moved back a year from their originally planned dates. The heating and ventilating system at Hawley School was kept in place before the Newtown Middle School flat roof. Mr Gaines, Mr Nanavaty, Ms Bittman, and Ms McClure voted in favor of this revised plan, and Ms Fetchick and Ms Wiedemann voted against it.

The Board of Finance is scheduled to review the CIP as approved by the school board at its meeting Monday night.