Newtown Montessori Society —

New School Gets Town Approval, Classes Started This Week

By Jeff White

Bobby, Dayton, Clair, and their Montessori classmates claimed their cubbies this week, as the Newtown Montessori Society’s (NMS) new Fraser-Woods School was granted a partial certificate of occupancy last Friday and was deemed fit to house students. After missing eight school days, Montessori students resumed classes on Monday.

“They met our qualifications,” Zoning Enforcement Officer Gary Frenette said Monday, stating that the 8.7 acre site had needed certain safety adjustments before the town would sign off on it.  

Late last week, the school completed several safety renovations, including cordoning off the area that will remain under construction from the area that will be inhabited by students, paving the parking lot, and installing a fence around building dirt and debris outside the school. The facility’s septic system was also completed. Last Friday, building and zoning officials toured the school and concluded that it met the requirements for a certificate of occupancy.

“They did everything we asked them,” Mr Frenette said.

The delay in opening the school, dubbed a “miscommunication” by NMS, was in part the result of confusion centering on the school’s “special exception” it received from Planning and Zoning (P&Z) late last November. This special exception called for an approximately 30,000 square foot area to be completed prior to students occupying the building, though the society only intended on developing roughly 18,000 square feet, leaving the balance for future construction.

Such miscommunication notwithstanding, some building officials, most notably Building Official Tom Paternoster, have said all along that it has been more of a safety issue than a compliance issue. On Tuesday, April 4, when the Fraser-Woods School was supposed to open its doors to Montessori students, the building simply was not ready, building officials said.

“They wanted to see a finished product,” School Head Myriam Woods said Monday of the latest tour of the facility by town building officials. Mrs Woods said that the town requested things that the school intended to do anyway, it was just a matter of when such adjustments needed to be completed.

For now, Mrs Woods’ desk in her new office is flooded with flowers from school supporters and well-wishers elated that the confusion has abated and the school is open. Students this week found their knobby white rugs and empty lockers waiting for them, and the atmosphere Monday afternoon seemed to reflect the obvious preference toward their new facility compared to the area fire station halls that housed some classes during the recent difficulties.

Besides making sure the transition from the school’s former Dodgingtown home to their new South Main Street facility is smooth, Mrs Woods and the rest of NMS’ Board of Trustees will be busy figuring out how they will make up for the hiccup in their school year.

Although a special exception, when granted, must be followed to the letter, zoning officials said this week that NMS will not have to seek an amendment to their special exception from P&Z. Originally it was feared that the school would have to weather weeks of no classes while it queued for a zoning hearing.  

According to Land Use Director Rita Macmillan, that will not be the case. She said that town officials determined that NMS did not change the plan for their school that was originally granted a special exception, they just did not follow through with completing the entire project.

“There was a misunderstanding because [NMS] felt that they had made it clear that it was only phase one, and the rest would have been completed in September,” Mrs Macmillan said.

“This is a one time thing, and that’s how we are going to look at it,” she added.

One hundred twenty-five students moved into the Fraser-Woods school this week. NMS plans on completing the renovations to their new school in time for next fall’s opening, when it plans to accommodate 200 students, including a new middle school program.