Mansfield Breaks Ground On Groundbreaking School

By Lisa Massicotte, The Chronicle

June 28, 2021

After a decade-long process, the day finally came Thursday for the groundbreaking of Mansfield’s soon-to-be new net-zero energy elementary school.

Dozens of officials, school staff and local families gathered outside Southeast Elementary School Thursday afternoon for the groundbreaking ceremony.

The school, located at 134 Warrenville Road, will be the new site of Connecticut’s first net-zero energy elementary school.

“It’s a fitting end to a difficult year to announce the beginning of construction for such an exciting new community school,” Mansfield Mayor Antonia Moran said during the ceremony.

Because the new school will be consolidating the existing three elementary schools, several second and third graders from the Dorothy C. Goodwin Elementary School, Annie E. Vinton Elementary School and Southeast Elementary School dug their shovels into the ground of the new school construction site.

The crowd roared with applause and excitement.

Speakers during the ceremony included state Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Willimantic, state Rep. Brian Smith, D-Colches-ter, and state Rep. Gregg Haddad, D-Mansfield, as well as Mansfield Board of Education Chairperson Kathleen Ward, Mansfield School Building Committee Chairman Randy Walikonis, Mansfield Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth and Mansfield Superintendent of Schools Kelly Lyman.

“When I think about this new elementary school, I think it’s just quintessential Mansfield. Mansfield is a community which recognized that its needs were changing. It’s absolutely incredible the work that’s been done here,” Flexer said.

The new school will serve students in preschool through fourth grade and is expected to open in fall 2022.

“From a town perspective, this building meets our goals for high-quality education, sustainability and smart financial planning,” Moran said.

Additionally, this new school will help address aging facilities as well as declining enrollment, which will help save money in the long haul, according to officials.

Haddad said, as a parent, a driving force to consolidate the three schools is “really to make sure that capital costs and building costs and maintenance costs don’t eclipse the investment that we really want to make in our kids and that is in the teachers and the principals and the staff at the school who really make our kids’ education special here in Mansfield.”

Once the new school is built, the existing Southeast Elementary School will be demolished, according to the construction plan.

“I’m so excited this work has been underway for several years now and seeing the fact that we could work through the pandemic and still be on time today, it’s so exciting,” Southeast Elementary School Principal Lauren Rodriguez said after the ceremony. “Clearly, by the number of people who showed today, you can see the community support for the project and its value.”

In November 2019, taxpayers approved spending $50.5 million for the project during a referendum.

On April 22, the Mansfield School Building Project Committee authorized Ayles-worth to enter into a contract with Newfield Construction Group LLC of Hartford for general contracting services.

Newfield’s base bid was $36,412,000.

Other design and construction partners for the project include Colliers Project Leaders out of Madison and TSKP Studio out of Hartford.

As Connecticut’s first net-zero public school, the new elementary school is designed to return as much energy to the grid as it uses.

“This has been a learning experience for us and for our management team, especially for our architects and their engineering team, however they did create a net-zero energy building with the use of an extensive geothermal field to reduce energy needs, abundance use of solar panels, appropriate orientation of the building, creation of a tight envelope in the building and finding creative ways to bring in natural light deep into the building,” Walikonis said.

“And that’s quite a feat.”

Some of the school’s features will include a 492-kilowatt photovoltaic array on the roof, reduced air infiltration, exterior lighting motion sensors, Energy Star appliances, geothermal pump water heating, LED lighting, ample outdoor learning opportunities and more.

The public can watch live video and photo streams of the new school’s construction progress online at mansfieldct.gov/2178/Watch-our-School-Grow.

Follow Lisa Massicotte on Twitter - @LMassicotteTC.

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