With just a few months to go before town and school officials have to unveil possible alternatives to the Board of Education (BOE) 10-plus year $100 million capital maintenance plan, on Tuesday, Jan. 15 residents are once again invited to attend a community workshop to weigh in on ideas and priorities.

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 what other options might be out there for the buildings.

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.

On Nov. 27, the group held a public forum at Ryerson Elementary School to start sharing with parents and community members what work has gone on so far and start to gauge what things are important to the public.

“The goal of that tri-board is really clear,” said Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice at the Ryerson forum. “Are there any other additional options beyond what is out there right now? The projects haven’t gone away, so the HVAC system or the boiler at Jeffrey we put off for two years needs to be replaced at some point. That’s just one of many things we need to think about.”

The 80 residents in attendance were asked to move around the room and weigh in on various topics. Topics included issues like security, tax impact, size and location of schools, and transportation, and some newer topics like considering multi-use schools buildings.

All of the feedback was to be compiled by the administration. Since the forum, members of the committee have been meeting regularly and taking a closer look at big issues that have stood out so far. Transportation of students has been a key concern to date, with parents wanting to avoid having their kids on a school bus for longer than 45 minutes.

“Identifying these common areas that would serve the community well, that is the goal to help come up with some alternative options,” said Scarice. “We are going to continue to build on that at the next public forum and we have a series of other forums such as we have a meeting at the senior center coming up and we have a meeting with some local realtors to try to really get a holistic view of the entire community on what would be the most advantageous approach to benefit the entire town.”

Scarice said he was very encouraged by the turnout at the first workshop and encouraged residents to keep coming and stay involved as the process continues.

The next community workshop is Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Walter C. Polson Middle School. More information can be found on the district website www.madison.k12.ct.us.