Two New Schools?

A new Board of Education (BOE) committee, which begins work this summer, could prove a powerful and transformative one.

It will be called the Facilities Committee; its membership will be finalized shortly. It will meet over the summer months to help decide whether to renovate or build new schools to replace Francis Walsh Intermediate and John B. Sliney Elementary schools.

The committee will also look at options for moving the administration offices to Walsh or perhaps another location, the latest development in the BOE’s effort to relocate its offices.

“We’re going to look at a number of issues,” said BOE Chairman Frank Carrano. He said a major objective is finding a permanent solution for noise levels at Walsh, which has an open-space design with few interior walls. Carrano said the committee will report its findings to the full board before the end of summer. 

“I think the committee is going to be busy for five or six weeks,” Carrano told the board at Wednesday night’s meeting. The notion of a new Walsh school was first reported in the Eagle last month.Click here to read about it.

Carrano told parents at a recent advisory meeting if a new school were to be built, there is property near the Mary Murphy Elementary School on Brushy Plain Road that could be a possibility. ​“That would be the ideal place to look since the town owns the property,” he said. 

Carrano told the Eagle Wednesday that he will announce the committee names in the next few days. He said he and Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez and some BOE board members will serve on the committee, along with administrators, parents, and possibly a member of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).

Carrano also told the board at the meeting that he recently learned about a relatively new state statute that allows school districts to deposit unspent funds in a special account earmarked for capital projects instead of returning the money to town coffers. ​“Many districts are already doing this,” he said, explaining that the special account would be managed by the town but could be used only by the BOE.

Carrano said the ​“unexpended funds” at the end of this school year are between $125,000 and $175,000.

Hernandez said he will meet with Jim Finch, the town’s finance director to discuss the possibility of establishing a capital project account for the BOE.

Carrano’s suggestion comes on the heels of last week’s RTM meeting, when town officials voted 14 – 10 to deny the BOE’s request for $35,000. The money would be used to hire a firm to design office space at Walsh so that administrators could move from their current location at the corner of Main and Montowese streets. The funds could also be used to design a proposed sound-proofing project for fifth-grade classrooms at Walsh. Click here to read about the RTM meeting.

Hernandez, who did not attend the RTM meeting, said he was surprised that the request was denied. ​“Unfortunately, it failed on inaccurate information,” he said.

Hernandez then asked the BOE to encumber $35,000 from the district’s unspent funds to hire the design firm, and his request was unanimously approved. ​“This permits me to move things forward,” he said.

A presentation scheduled for Wednesday’s BOE meeting by Silver Petrucelli and Associates regarding moving the offices to Walsh was postponed.

Hernandez said he is currently reviewing five schematic options to reconfigure the Walsh space into administrative offices. He said he is looking for input from the facilities committee regarding the office move.

Hernandez said a code compliance officer hired by the district will be inspecting Walsh next week to determine if a sound-proofing project for the fifth grade classrooms would be feasible. He said if the inspector gives a ​“thumbs up,” then the BOE will call a special meeting so the district can go to the Board of Finance and the RTM to request funding for the project. He said the project could ​“hopefully be complete before school begins.”

At the recent meeting of the BOE’s Parent Advisory Committee, Hernandez said that sound-proofing could be a temporary fix if the costs are reasonable, regardless of future plans for renovating or replacing Walsh. Any major renovation or new construction could take years to complete.
Carrano later told the Eagle that all plans hinge on the recommendations of the facilities committee.

In other business Wednesday, the board voted unanimously to hire Douglas Cucchiarelli (pictured) as the new assistant principal at Walsh. Hernandez said Cucchiarelli, a science teacher at the Hillcrest Middle School in Trumbull, has an administrative style that is ​“kid-centered and collaborative.”

The board also voted to extend the superintendent’s contract by one year, running through 2015.

“We’re very pleased with Superintendent Hernandez’s work with us,” Carrano said. ​“We have very high expectations for next year.”

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