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Madison BOE Resumes Discussions of School Facilities Study

After a brief hiatus to tackle the budget, the Board of Education (BOE) has reopened discussion of its school facilities study. With a high likelihood that it may close one of the current school buildings, the board is working to announce their decision by the end of the school year.

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice has indicated that the board is seriously considering three building configuration options.

“We are looking at a possibility of a six-school district like we have now; we are looking at a five-school option where we would close one elementary school, and the third option, which is probably the most unique, is to close all three elementary schools and to build an new pre-k to 2 school,” he said.

The board is currently investigating a piece of land know as the LeSage property, located on Green Hill Road and Copse Road, as a building site should the board chooses to move toward the last option and build a new school.

Under all of the possible school configuration options, Brown will serve grades 3-5 and Polson will serve grades 6-8 and the high school will remain. While many decisions have yet to be made, the board is beginning to outline its next steps.

To do so, the BOE invited architect Paul Moore from the firm Drummey Rosane Anderson to its March 8 meeting to discuss how to proceed once a building decision has been made.

“If the BOE selects an option, then we can focus on that option and go forward with the conceptual design, which then leads to cost estimates, which is a very important part of this,” said Moore.

Currently the BOE has rough numbers it’s using to help compare options.

“To actually get a better price than those numbers,” Moore said. “We need to go through all of the conceptual design steps.”

One of the more important steps Moore discussed was the need to bring the community on board with the project leading up to the referendum, which is expected to take place in 2017.

“Once we have this well enough defined so that we can actually show it to people in the community, there needs to be some sort of a campaign leading up to the referendum where they will vote for the bonding on the project,” he said. “There needs to be a period of time where what is being voted on is placed in front of the community so they understand what it is going to cost and what they are getting for their money.”

When it comes to referendum, the public will not be voting to select a school option, but rather will vote to approve the funding for the project. The school configuration decision will be left up to the BOE.

BOE member John Dean expressed concern with this model.

“So you either vote it up or vote it down,” he said. “What is the matter with choices? If it gets voted down you are back in square one.”

Scarice said it is the BOE’s job to make a responsible decision and that they have been working hard to gather input from the public. He said they have heard similar concerns at the public meetings that will help shape their decision.

“Geography has been one of the biggest things we have heard at the public forum, cost as well, and also is the design going to fit what we are trying to do in our classrooms,” Scarice said.

Member Jessica Bowler said she believes the public understands that something has to be done to support the current facilities.

“The reality is the buildings are old, people understand that,” she said. “They were built a long time ago; they need some help.”

Discussions will continue over the next several months and the BOE is planning to hold its seventh public meeting with the community and a third joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance in the coming weeks.

Selectman (and former BOE chair) Robert Hale said he is pleased with process the BOE has followed and believes there are some good options before them.

“I think that the board is in very good stead because you had a million and a half options and you have worked very hard to get it down to one or two options,” he said. “We have taken all of the rest of the stuff off of the table and I think that is a very good thing.”

The BOE is expected to make a final decision in June 2016.