Board of Education Approves Elementary School Facilities Plan

By Ted Glanzer

The Board of Education at a special meeting on Tuesday enthusiastically and unanimously endorsed the 10-year elementary school facilities plan that calls for, among other things, the construction of a new school, the renovation of three others and the shutting down of the Wapping School.

The plan calls for three phases with three separate referendums; the first referendum would take place in March 2014.

In the first phase, the town would construct a new pre-K through 5th grade school on the Orchard Hill Site. The original school would serve as swing space, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kate Carter, meaning that students of other schools can attend there while their school is being renovated or rebuilt.

The second phase would address two schools: Eli Terry and Philip R Smith.

Eli Terry would be razed, Carter said, and a new K through 5 school would be built on site. The students who attend Eli Terry currently would remain in that school while the new school is being built.

Philip R Smith would be completely renovated while those students attend Orchard Hill.

Phase three would include completely renovating Pleasant Valley School while those students attend Orchard Hill. When renovations are complete, the Town Council would decide if the building should be razed, Carter said.

The plan was unanimously endorsed and will, therefore, be moved on to the Town Council for deliberation.

“I believe in and am committed to the phased approach,” school board Chairman David Joy said. “I think the phased approach works on many levels.”

Indeed, Carter and the school board members said that the phased approach enables the town to absorb the cost of the projects over a period of time that is more palatable to taxpayers. In addition, the phases enable officials to apply best practices - institutional knowledge, as Joy put it - from one project to the next.

Also, the plan gives the town flexibility should circumstances - such as enrollment projections, state requirements or state reimbursement calculations - change in the future.

In addition, the approach is in response to two previous, similar referendums that called for taking on the entire project - construction and cost - at once. Both of those referendums failed.

“We failed on two previous referendums,” Joy said. “Part of the failure was the size and scope of the plans. Some people just didn’t understand it.”

Joy said that, given the state requirement that construction had to be started within two years of allocation of state funds to a school project, he’s not sure what the town would have done if one of the prior two referendums passed.

“We need to walk before we run,” Joy said.

Every other school board member also got behind the project.

Vice Chair Lisa Maneeley said that she “fully endorses” the project, though there may be an additional “hook” needed to help Pleasant Valley residents back the plan, as that school is addressed last.

Indeed, Pleasant Valley parent Tom Porcello said during public comment that he was concerned that the third referendum for Phase 3 of the project would not pass. Porcello noted that two referendums have already failed, and asking voters in town to approve three separate phases of the project “makes me really uncomfortable.”

Carter and school board members acknowledged the need to go out into the community and communicate that this isn’t about the order of schools to be renovated or built or even just schools alone. This is a project that touches the entire community and is about South Windsor, not just students or parents of one section of town.

“This is not a Pleasant Valley thing or an Orchard Hill thing, it’s a South Windsor thing,” said school board member Richard Stahr, who added that the plan solves many community issues, such as moving the senior center to Wapping School, if the town follows the recommendation of the school board.

School board member Phil Koboski, addressing concerns of the first referendum passing only to have the second or third failing because of the time frame, quoted a Greek proverb.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in,” he said.

In response to a question by Gonzalez as to what would happen if the Phase I referendum does not pass, Carter said that she would be “saddened” and “disappointed.”

However, she said that the school district’s mission to provide South Windsor children with a quality education would not change, only that it would continue in inefficient buildings that do not necessarily meet the needs of the 21st century.

Carter was quick to point out that there is a need for the 3-phase project, but there is no crisis in town.

Joy added that it was “unacceptable in 2013 for our schools not to be accessible to people with disabilities.”

Carter also addressed one of the major questions: how did her team come up with the order of schools to be renovated or built?

Phase I - the construction of the new school on the Orchard Hill property - was selected as the current Orchard Hill can be used as “swing space.” That gives the town flexibility during redistricting, which includes the closing of the Wapping School.

Eli Terry and Philip R. Smith were then selected for Phase II because of overcrowding at Eli Terry and the overall condition of the two buildings.

Pleasant Valley is last due in part to the new roof that was approved for the school at a referendum in 2012. Pleasant Valley will essentially be the school in the best shape going forward.

“It just makes sense,” said school board member Diane Behler said. “It’s good for the town.”

Another question answered by Pat Hankard, the schools’ director of facility operations, was how much it would cost just to bring the schools up to code.

Hankard said it would cost close to $20 million just to address Orchard Hill. Every school would face a similar cost if the referendums aren’t passed. That includes Wapping, as it would remain open in the event that the Phase I referendum fails.

Building a new school at Orchard Hill, after reimbursement from the state, would cost $21.5 million, school board member Sheila Appleton said.