Hawley To Add Classrooms To Address Class Size

By Jeff White

Although much of the focus on school overcrowding has centered on Sandy Hook School, Hawley School has also felt the pressure of growing class sizes and will receive a major renovation to alleviate the strain. The school district’s additional budget cuts notwithstanding, the school’s principal said this week that the project would continue as scheduled.

“It’s definitely still on,” said Hawley Principal Jo-Ann Peters Thursday morning.

The school’s improvement project would focus on its basement, which will be renovated and turned into three additional classrooms and a full size gymnasium. Hawley School’s lower level was used up until three years ago, after which the school’s new addition turned the basement into a storage area.

Mrs Peters said that she hoped to move the school’s reading lab down into the new space, while turning one of the classrooms into a math/science room, and the third classroom into an instrumental/special education room.

 “This is a big one, bigger than most people expect,” Mrs Peters said of the project. The basement has already been cleared of all storage material, and the principal said this week, “We hope to begin minor renovations shortly.”

The major parts of the renovations, such turning the existing space into usable classrooms, would begin upon the Newtown Board of Education’s action to award a contract for the project in early June. Hawley School’s basement would also have to be brought up to code to house children, which would include updating the area’s sprinkler system once the school year comes to a close.

The bulk of the $150,000 project would take place in the summer, with the area ready for classes to begin in late August.

Mrs Peters has said that the additional classroom space from this project would help her address increasing class sizes in the school. Currently, Hawley School averages, for example, 25-26 students in each fifth grade class. Mrs Peters said that the three additional classrooms would bring that number down to 21 students in a class. The school is also dealing with having to run several double gym classes.

The school population is expected to increase from a current enrollment of 547 student to 552.

“I’m going to be on top of this from the beginning,” Mrs Peters has said about the project. Although she maintained that the school’s enrollment increase does not pose as acute a problem as that of Sandy Hook School, for example, there would still be a strain on the school resources. “I’m not expecting a huge increase, but I’m expecting a change.”

The school’s basement renovation is a major project among a list of smaller, less complicated projects that are scheduled to take place this summer at the school. Hawley’s cupola is scheduled to be painted, bathrooms in the 1948 building are slated to be renovated, along with some window and door replacements. It is unclear at this point whether some of these additional projects might have to be postponed as the district looks for a way to trim its budget by an additional $500,000.

Due to the construction scheduled to take place at the school this summer, the usual calendar of summer school programs will not take place. Besides one-on-one tutorials, there will be no summer school programs at Hawley School this summer.