This report was edited on January 1 at 9 am to correct CIP information previously posted.

Newtown’s public school buildings were the subject of many discussions at town board and commission meetings in 2015, with a new school building project underway, capital improvement plan discussions, and a report from a Facility and Enrollment Study Committee.

As the year began bids for the construction phase of the new Sandy Hook Elementary School building project were reported to the Public Building and Site Commission (PBSC) as under budget, with site work ahead of the formal groundbreaking continuing.

By the end of January crews hoped to complete the deep dynamic compaction work and continue installation of storm drainage pipe and catch basins.

At its February 4 meeting, the PBSC accepted bids related to the final construction phase for the new school building.

“Accepting these bids will allow the project to proceed rapidly, and we anticipate construction to be completed on time and within budget,” PBSC Chair Robert Mitchell said at the time.

Representatives of the landscape architecture design firm Richter & Cegan  of Avon presented designs for the new school building’s playgrounds to the PBSC on June 23. At that same meeting the commission heard from representatives of Svigals + Partners about plans for art in the new building.

“We like to inspire wonder and curiosity in the students and allow them to dream of things that maybe they wouldn’t have thought of before,” said Marissa Dionne Mead, when explaining why Svigals + Partners likes adding art to its buildings. “We think it adds a lot of value and it is a pretty inexpensive way to do so.”

After construction began in March at the site, a topping off ceremony was held on June 30, with crew members and town officials on site to see the final steel construction beam at the new school building being signed by the entire construction team, and then hoisted into place. Mr Mitchell said such ceremonies mark a significant milestone in the timeline of commercial and public building projects. The ceremony was closed to the public and press.

By October, photos released by the design and construction team for the Sandy  Hook School building project showed the overall footprint of the building having transformed into a finished exterior shell. The project team posted the photos on the project’s page, sandyhook2016.com.

Diversified Project Management’s Geralyn Hoerauf presented the fifth phase of the new Sandy Hook Elementary School building project to the Board of Education at its meeting on Tuesday, December 1. The sixth phase of the project, which includes playground equipment, was approved out of sequence by the school board, at the start of September. The fifth phase, as approved by the school board, includes furniture, the plans for furniture placement, technology equipment, and custodial equipment.

“We’re still sitting on about $1 million of contingency for the project,” Ms Hoerauf later said about the project overall, “and the project is on schedule to open… well, it will be substantially complete and turned over to the town, probably June 1.”

Preparing For Renovations At NHS

Efforts on the Newtown High School auditorium renovation project started long before the Board of Finance and the PBSC met separately on May 28 to lay the groundwork for the earliest stages of the planned project.

After an early misstep getting the appropriate budget allocation into the town’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), the project was back on track, and was expected to receive expedited handling apparently due to the abbreviated time available to complete all the necessary work.

In September of 2014, town officials learned that the project, whose bonding had already been approved by voters for $2.2 million, had escalated in cost to more than $3.5 million. At the same time, however, a school district consultant told finance officials that since planned work would bring the facility up to current fire code and handicap accessibility compliance, the town could seek and would likely receive state reimbursements.

Dozens of residents packed the Newtown Municipal Center’s council chambers for a July 6 Town Meeting, and approved $3.6 million for the renovation that will create a fully code compliant, handicapped accessible, state-of-the-art public gathering and performance space at NHS.

Roughly a month later, the PBSC unanimously selected Smith Edwards McCoy Architects of Hartford to design the auditorium renovation.

Kent McCoy of Smith Edwards McCoy Architects presented the PBSC with a schematic package for the auditorium renovation at the commission’s meeting on November 24. Mr McCoy told commissioners that in his estimation, the timeline for work is rolling out and he believes completion of the job will be on schedule. He said soft demolition aspects of the project will begin on or about March 28, with construction commencing on July 5.

Director of Music Michelle Hiscavich was in attendance for the November 24 PBSC meeting, and told the commission that she, Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, and all the other school staff who are involved with maintaining or utilizing the auditorium and adjacent performing arts and music space were engaged with the design process.

Ms Hiscavich also shared a presentation on the auditorium renovation the Board of Education at its meeting on December 15.

“What we have come up with is really exciting to all of us, and it will suit all of the things that we have issues with in our current auditorium,” Ms Hiscavich said.

Soft demolition for the project is expected to begin in March, following the showings of the high school’s musical Beauty and the Beast March 17-19, at 7 pm, and March 19-20, at 2 pm.

 A Pesky Leak At The High School

The PBSC addressed a pesky and protracted leak at its meeting on February 4 that had been intermittently occurring in the newly constructed area of the high school.

The $38.8 million NHS expansion broke ground in May 2009, and included a new cafetorium, science classrooms, culinary classroom space, and a new nurtury space. The expansion was open for student use, with some work still remaining, by the start of 2011.

The leak apparently involved the window wall in the new cafetorium in the rear of the new high school wing. Unfortunately, Mr Mitchell said at the February 4 meeting, the leak only occurs when specific conditions combine heavy rain and wind hitting the building from a certain direction, so it has been difficult and frustrating to pin down. During the scheduled April school recess, he said contractors planned to disassemble part of that window wall to try and finally resolve the leak.

In November, Mr Mitchell told The Bee the leak continued to confound school maintenance and plant personnel, contractors, and consultants alike, and it continued to occasionally drip pools of water into the rear cafetorium area of the addition. Mr Mitchell said officials closely monitoring the difficult-to-pin-down water intrusions are certain it is happening because of a failure to complete the installation of flashing behind a primary exterior wall. Unfortunately, the company that was contracted to perform the original installation of a massive window wall in the cafetorium is no longer in business.

Mr Mitchell said the latest determination revealed that five segments of flashing need to be installed or replaced, and that work can only be done under special circumstances. Both Mr Mitchell and the district’s Facilities Director Gino Faiella were hopeful in November that a final resolution would be found within the next couple of months.

Facility And Enrollment Study

Ahead of delivering a Facility and Enrollment Study Committee’s report on June 2, Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, oversaw a Community Forum to discuss the study. Dr Erardi explained the report would detail possible options for closing a school, and work on the study by an internal district team started in January, following a November 5, 2014, Board of Education meeting, when the latest enrollment report confirmed an expected enrollment decline over the next decade.

The report shared at the June 2 meeting focused on closing Hawley Elementary School, but cost estimates for closing Newtown Middle School were also provided in the report. Added together, the cost savings and cost avoidances listed in the presentation for closing Hawley were roughly $15,387,000. Cost savings and cost avoidances listed in the presentation for closing NMS add up to roughly $9,115,926. Cost avoidances were listed as capital improvement projects and maintenance costs through the 2019-20 school year.

The study listed seven possible school configurations for the district, and negative and positive aspects for each option. Closing an elementary school was outlined in four configurations, and three outlined closing NMS.

Within a week of the report presentation, Hawley community members delivered a response to the idea of closing the historic elementary school. Parents and community members gathered in the elementary school’s gymnasium on June 8 for the first “Save Our Schools” or “SOS” campaign meeting hosted by the school’s PTA. The following evening, June 9, school advocates gathered again at Hawley to hear from and share concerns with the school superintendent and members of the Board of Education. For the 2016-17 school year, Dr Erardi told the group, the district is expected to have roughly 1,100 fewer students than it had in the 2005-06 school year, the peak for the district’s enrollment.

The Board of Education decided unanimously at its special meeting on June 24 that no Newtown school, specifically Hawley, will be closed for the 2016-17 school year, and the board decided to continue a general discussion on the best use of district facilities.

Following the decision,SOS campaign leaders promised to continue to find solutions for Newtown’s schools. By the next day the SOS campaign had changed its name to stand for “Support Our Schools.” A Facebook page for the campaign says its mission is to “advocate for the best interest of our children and support a high quality education platform in Newtown.”

The School Board’s 2015-16 CIP

The Board of Education approved its CIP for 2016 to 2021 at a September 15 meeting.

The CIP was first presented to the school board August 18 by CIP/Finance/Facilities Committee member Kathy Hamilton, who explained changes to the board’s proposed CIP for 2016 through 2021 included a Middle Gate Elementary School boiler and lighting upgrade, a revision to the Newtown High School roof project, and a new project to replace the turf field at Newtown High School to meet the recommended ten-year replacement. The Middle Gate boiler project was moved up from the previous year’s CIP to “take advantage of a program that is being offered by [Eversource],” she said at the meeting.

The board decided at its September 15 meeting to add $1.62 million for a Hawley Elementary School boiler project to its fourth year of the five-year spending plan.

The Legislative Council passed the proposed five-year CIP, on December 16.

Following a Facility and Enrollment Study Committee’s report presentation by Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, to the Board of Education in June, Hawley Elementary School became the subject of meetings in town after the historic school and Newtown Middle School were pegged in the report for possible closure. 

An aerial photo of the Sandy Hook Elementary School construction site taken near the start of October illustrated the overall progress of the project. The new facility is still on track to be completed for the 2016-17 school year, according to the project’s website, sandyhook2016.com.