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06/05/2018 12:00 AMNear the end of a Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting on May 29, the board called an executive session to review the financial documents presented by Our Lady of Mercy (OLM) Prep regarding a possible lease agreement for Island Avenue Elementary School. After nearly 45 minutes behind closed doors, there was no sign of white smoke and the conversation was continued to a future meeting.
In recent months, representatives from OLM Prep have been sitting down with two members of the BOS to discuss the potential of the newly formed school group leasing Island Avenue from the town starting in fall 2019 once the Madison Public School District formally turns the building over to the town.
Over a series of meetings, the town and OLM Prep representatives discussed everything from financials to enrollment numbers to liability, but the BOS meeting on May 22 was the first time the whole BOS was shown the financial sheets. All members of the BOS, along with representatives of the Board of Finance (BOF), the town Finance Department, and the town attorney, were brought into the executive session.
After the executive session, there was a motion on the table to set a public hearing in June to hear comments from residents on a potential lease agreement between the town and OLM Prep for Island Avenue. However, the board voted to table setting a public hearing because First Selectman Tom Banisch said the board has some questions.
OLM Prep representative John Picard said he was not surprised the town wasn’t ready to take action on that particular item and doesn’t see it as a setback.
“I fully understand and expected that to be the case,” he said. “The whole board probably got the financials the morning of the meeting, so I expected them to table with more information.”
Getting to this Point
Parents and families from OLM Prep first came before the Board of Selectmen (BOS) on April 9 to discuss the potential of leasing Island Avenue School. Closing Island is part of the Board of Education (BOE) response to declining enrollment; as of now the plan is to close the school in June 2019.
OLM, located at 149 Neck Road in town, is the main Catholic K-8 school serving Madison and Guilford since 1954. Over the past few years, the school community has been left in a state of flux following an announcement that the school’s lease would be terminated and then a more recent announcement early this year telling parents that the school building would close at the end of this academic year and the school be combined with St. Mary’s School in Branford.
Following the news of the imminent closure, some OLM families banded together to begin looking for ways to separate the school from the local parishes to form an independent Catholic school, and find a permanent home, ideally still in Madison.
Thus far OLM Prep has indicated financial holdings of about $1.3 million and a strong fundraising history. The town, wanting to ensure the deal is profitable, is working with the assumption that the Island property, if developed, could yield a tax revenue of roughly $480,000 a year.
Having yet to encounter any red flags that would put an end to discussions, a tentative timeline has been set that would ultimately put a question before residents at a town meeting in early July. After the executive session on May 29, Selectman Bruce Wilson said not taking a vote on the public hearing that evening doesn’t necessarily ruin the proposed timeline.
“What we would like to do moving forward is meet with the full board in executive sessions with representatives where we can talk about what we have received,” he said. “We still think that, if it is warranted, we can maintain the timeline, so we might have to be Johnny-on-the-spot as far as scheduling goes, but we think we can do it.”
Picard said he was pleased the proposed timeline to town meeting on July 10 to consider a potential lease agreement is still viable.
“I think the good news out of the meeting was that they said it won’t affect the July 10 timeframe and that they were going to call a special meeting next week with an executive session, so a few of us can go in the room with them and explain our position,” he said. “So [the delay is] not unexpected at all and I am happy we are going to have a meeting next week so that we can talk.”
Other Parts of the Plan
While representatives have been talking to the town about Island, other members of the OLM Prep team have been at work to staff the new school and secure buildings in town for the interim year before OLM Prep could move into Island in 2019, if they can come to an agreement with the town.
In the past few weeks, OLM Prep has announced it has selected a home for grades pre-K–3 in Madison and the hiring of a new principal for the school, Ann Knowles. The team is now gearing up to start hiring teachers. Picard said he is not yet willing to announce the name of the pre-K-3 location, but said the school officials hope to be able to announce a location fro grades 4-8 soon as well.
“We are close, but we are not there yet,” he said. “We are hoping to do that within the next week and have that finalized.”
In forming OLM Prep, the organizers have moved to break with the local parishes and by extension the archdiocese. While the parishes would not sponsor the school, organizers have said the new school will be grounded in the Catholic faith while still open to those of all religions. On June 1, the Archdiocese of Hartford reached out to The Source to express that the new school couldn’t officially consider itself Catholic.
“While it may be an ‘independent school,’ it will not be Catholic,” said Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Hartford Maria Zone in an email. “Only an archbishop/bishop who has ecclesiastical authority within the boundaries of an archdiocese or diocese can make this determination. Archbishop Leonard P. Blair of the Archdiocese of Hartford has named the East Shoreline Catholic Academy (ESCA) as the successor Catholic school that will serve students on the east shoreline. He has said, “I do not intend to grant my consent or to recognize any other planned entity as a Catholic school in the area.’ Therefore, any ‘new OLM school’ is not, and should not present itself, as a Catholic school.”
Picard, upon hearing the comments, said whether or not it has been properly portrayed across various media outlets, OLM Prep understands it is not a Catholic school, but it is still a school based in the values of the Catholic faith.
“And with all due respect to his Excellency [the Archbishop], you can’t take our faith away,” he said.