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04/30/2019 04:30 PMAnother chance for residents to weigh in on the strategic plan for the Madison Public Schools is just around the corner. On Thursday, May 16, the tri-board working group will host another community workshop to update the public on recent work and seek more feedback on the path forward.
Over the past year, a tri-board group, made up of two members from each of the boards of Selectmen (BOS), Education (BOE), and Finance (BOF), has been meeting regularly to try to find alternatives to the BOE 10-year, $100 million capital maintenance plan.
The group made a presentation to the larger boards on April 1, listing a number of options to move forward with including the existing maintenance plan, which has often been described as a Band-Aid fix or throwing good money after bad; a five-school model; a four-school model; and a three-school model.
The five, four, and three-school models all have various iterations. However, when the tri-board presented to the full boards on April 1, it was clear the group did not feel the five-school model or three-school model was the best way forward.
The tri-board decided to take a closer look at the four-school model. When first presented, Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice previously said the group took a hard look and found a four-school model to likely be the best option going forward.
“The four-school option provides the most flexibility,” he said. “I think the initial takeaway out of all the options is what was championed is a four school district—not a five school or a three school, and within that four there are a variety of options to consider.”
Under this model, almost all options involve a new central elementary school, maintain Brown Intermediate School in some capacity, and have a series of upgrades or improvements at Polson Middle School and Daniel Hand High School (DHHS). Total costs range from $119- to $198 million.
Honing In on Two
The group looked at least eight different variations of a four-school model but focused on five to share with the larger boards. Those options, all of which can be found on the district website www.madison.k12.ct.us, are 4.1a, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5.
Since the April 1 presentation, the group has narrowed the options under the four-school model down to two: 4.1a and 4.4. With the help of Colliers International, a local project management firm with which the district has worked previously, the tri-board has started to work through a deeper investigation as to the feasibility and details of those two options.
Option 4.1a has a price range of $155- to $177 million. Under this model, DHHS would be converted to a middle school, Polson Middle School would be converted to a high school, Brown Intermediate School would be converted to a pre-K-4 elementary school, and a new elementary school would be built on Green Hill Road.
Option 4.4 is the cheapest of all options with a range of $118- to $129 million. Under this option, DHHS would be maintained as is, Polson would be maintained as is, Brown would be converted to a K to 5 elementary school and a second central elementary school would be built south of Green Hill Road to house pre-K to 5.
Scarice previously said option 4.4 also would involve the least disruption to students from a construction and relocation standpoint. He said a key point under any four-school model that doesn’t show a total renovation of Polson means the $40 million listed for Polson over the next 10 years in the maintenance plan doesn’t go away.
Since option 4.4 does not involve a renovation of Polson, one of the things the tri-board has started to take a closer look at is if a couple of Polson projects could be added to any upcoming bond requests.
“I think we all know there are quite a few Polson projects and the question was: Can you carve out some of them for bonding and then do the remainder of the capital projects over a longer period of time?” said Scarice previously. “The answer is ‘Yes.’”
In addition, since the April 1 meeting the tri-board has been working with Colliers to investigate feasibility components such as septic capacity, building test-fits, rough project timelines, and potential state funding support, etc. The plan is for the tri-board to have a firm, go-no go on the various options before the May 16 community workshop. All members of the tri-board agreed that they need to be able to look at the public and say with great confidence that the options presented can be completed within a set price range.
The Third Option
The third option still on the table is the capital maintenance plan. The BOE unveiled and adopted the $100 million, 10-plus year capital maintenance plan in June 2018. 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 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.
The tri-board Community Workshop is Thursday, May 16 at 7 p.m. at Brown Middle School, 980 Durham Road.
Find more detailed information on the options on the Madison Public Schools website www.madison.k12.ct.us.