By Jarret Liotta
Because of the closure of mold-plagued Coleytown Middle School (CMS), the Board of Education (BOE) is asking the town to expedite an appropriation of up to $4 million for portable classrooms at other schools. But it still could reverse its decision to have Westport elementary schools go to K-6 next year.
Parents line up to address the Board of Education Monday night and early today. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
In a 6-to-1 vote, which came at 12:30 a.m. today, the BOE approved a request for an appropriation that would fund 14 portable classrooms at the five elementary schools, or could instead go toward funding portables as Bedford Middle School (BMS), should it decide next week to change its K-6 decision.
As one member put it, the request will serve as “a placeholder” until its meeting next Monday, at which time there will likely be discussion — and possibly a new vote — on changing the facilities plan for next year to include a townwide middle school at BMS instead of K-6 at the elementary schools.
“I truly do believe over the last couple of weeks we have a lot of new information … that we didn’t have in December,” Andrea Moore, a Board of Finance (BOF) member, told the BOE during public comment.
“I believe that there’s no harm in relooking at things,” she said, citing “a lot of real risks in terms of timelines and costs that could come and bite us.”
Just before the vote, BOF member Sheri Gordon, speaking to the tight timeline faced to have the appropriation approved by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) by a Feb. 8 deadline in order to remain eligible for state grant funding, suggested it might also be prudent to propose different resolutions at once.
“In the interest of time,” she said, “it may be wise to consider multiple resolutions … If the board should say ‘No,’” she said, they could still have a different one considered.
The question of whether it should revisit the decision to either implement a K-6 plan or a single middle school arose at a Friday BOE discussion meeting in the wake of newly projected costs for portable classrooms amounting to $3.6 million.
“I’m assuming you don’t want to have that discussion tonight,” said BOE member Vik Muktavaram, who is among those asking the question.
“We can’t throw money away … It’s not the costs we were originally presented with,” he said.
BOE member Karen Kleine was the dissenting vote regarding the appropriation request.
“I have a concern about the timing and process on this,” she said.
The BOE heard a litany of public comment for and against a change to the K-6 plan. Robert Harrington, a CMS parent who has been a vocal supporter of K-6, announced that he had changed his stand.
“This plan is simply too distracting with too many uncertainties for this administration and this board to take on,” he said.
“You’re heading into a bloodbath at the Board of Finance,” he said. “They will not support this funding.”
The BOE had to postpone further discussion and a possible vote on its 2019-20 operating budget and will likely schedule another meeting even before its next scheduled meeting on Monday, in order to look further at Superintendent of Schools Colleen Palmer’s $119.3-million budget request.
Palmer told the BOE the Town Charter requires the BOE to submit its budget to the BOF by Feb. 5.
Other people spoke out passionately that the BOE needs to stay the course with the K-6 plan, including parent Monica Lazaro.
“I was told it was decided,” she said. “You voted on it. I was told to move on. I moved on … You need to move on.”
“It’s almost February,” she said. “The first set of portables was supposed to be in place two weeks ago,” at BMS, part of an original discussion to alleviate overcrowding there following the move of CMS students in the fall.
Meanwhile the BOE heard a presentation from two experts who were asked to do a peer review of the original CMS reports issued by the architectural firm KG & D of Mount Kisco, New York and Turner Building Science & Design, LLC, of Lyndonville, Vermont.
They noted that the reports — particularly that from KG & D — had broadly expressed extreme worst-case scenario solutions, and that a practical solution more likely involved parts of each report and probably less initial work in order to make the school operable.
“Age alone is not necessarily a reason to replace a roofing system,” Sarah Sinusas of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., in Shelton, noted of the KG & D recommendations. “There’s some life left in that roof, so it doesn’t need to be replaced right away.
She outlined the variations in the walls — four different kinds of constructed walls resulting from original work in the 1960s and a 1998 renovation. Consequently, she said, different sections of the building have had different amounts of problems from water leakage.
“Some of the wall types are more sensitive than others,” she said.
Regardless, she and Craig Razza of Kohler Ronan, LLC, in New York and Danbury, said that they would need to gather more information in order to give specifics as to how extensive a renovation was needed to bring the building up to par and to share cost estimates.
“We looked at this from a high level,” Razza said, saying there were many unknowns.
“It makes sense, but it complicates our decision process,” noted BOE member Elaine Whitney.
“It seems to me getting safely into the building by the fall of 2019 is not reasonable,” BOE member Candace Savin asked. “Do you agree with that?”
“Yes,” Sinusas said.
Finally, the CMS Task Force is due to present its report to the BOE on Feb. 4.
“I’m certainly unwilling to make a decision as to what we do until we have all the information,” BOE Chairman Mark Mathias said.
