The April 1 deadline for the tri-board working group to identify a possible alternative to the Board of Education (BOE) 10-plus year $100 million capital maintenance plan is less than three months away. However, after high turnout at the second community workshop on Jan. 15, working group members are encouraged by the level of community input and interest on this issue.

The long-term capital maintenance plan, which can be viewed in full with this story at Zip06.com, ranges from fiscal year 2018-’19 to fiscal year 2032–’33; the projects are divided by building. The BOE voted on June 19, 2018 to send the next five years’ worth of projects forward to the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Committee and Board of Selectmen (BOS) for their consideration. Those five years of projects alone total roughly $61 million.

However, school officials have emphasized that all of the projects listed don’t do anything to upgrade the schools in terms of new features to match current teaching; the proposals address things like new boilers or new HVAC systems, projects designed to keep the old school buildings up and running. Since $100 million was considered a lot of money to spend on maintenance, a new tri-board working group was formed about three months ago to explore other options.

The group includes two members of the BOE, two from the BOS, and two from the Board of Finance (BOF). The tri-board group has to make a presentation on a possible solution or solutions to the full boards by April 1.

The first community workshop was held at Ryerson Elementary School in November 2018 and over 80 residents attended. The recent workshop at Polson Middle School on Jan. 15 brought in nearly the same number of people, with only 10 or so residents identifying themselves as repeat attendees. Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice said he greatly appreciated the turnout.

“I have been here for seven years and these are the largest groups I have been in front of for public meetings so I appreciate that,” he said.

Like at the Ryerson workshop, Scarice reiterated the history of the schools facilities and what challenges are ahead.

“This is not a partisan issue we are talking about,” he said. “It’s just a small-town New England community issue. We have some old buildings. We have a problem to solve and it’s a community problem to solve… Whatever the schools do, it has to nest within a larger town strategy or plan.”

Residents were again asked to move around the room and weigh in on various topics. Topics included issues like security, geography, size and location of schools, and transportation, and some newer topics like considering multi-use or public-use school buildings.

“This is an opportunity to get honest feedback so when a solution is proposed or a series of solutions are proposed, that we know we have a consensus of the community,” he said.

Scarice also emphasized that he and the working group are looking to get input from all sections of the community. Folks have been meeting with realtors and Scarice is set for a meeting with members of the Senior Center on Wednesday, Jan. 23.

“That is a demographic we want to make sure we capture,” he said.

Scarice again encouraged residents to keep coming to future workshops and stay involved as the process continues. More information can be found on the district website www.madison.k12.ct.us.