By Jarret Liotta
The next chapter in the Coleytown Middle School (CMS) saga unfolded tonight when the Board of Education appointed membership of the town’s Maintenance Study Committee (MSC) to oversee its CMS Task Force.
First Selectman Jim Marpe makes a pitch for the Board of Education to use his appointed Maintenance Study Committee to look into the viability of getting Coleytown Middle School back online. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
With plans in motion to move sixth grade to the elementary schools next year following the closing of CMS due to mold, moisture and air quality issues, a thorough investigation into the building’s future is on the table.
But while the board meeting was virtually empty following voluminous and polarized public participation in recent weeks over the controversy of how to realign the schools, the board itself was politely split over the makeup of the task force.
“I’m wondering if there is an opportunity perhaps to rely on the committee, but also bring in other people,” said member Vik Muktavaram. He noted several members of the public had spoken to the BOE over the past several months and offered their expertise in related areas.
“I agree,” said member Candice Savin.
“I think we have a terrific resource here that we should avail ourselves of, (but) I think it would help strengthen the committee and its credibility,” she said, to involve people who have been “completely outside of the process up until now.”
First Selectman Jim Marpe, following private discussions with BOE Chairman Mark Mathias, made a pitch for using the MSC—an appointed committee charged with keeping tabs on town buildings.
While he acknowledged it had previously done a report on CMS in 2009, he said it had focused more on roof repairs and had not involved the kind of in-depth examination more recently made by a private consultant for the BOE.
“There’s a fair amount of knowledge already in place,” he said of the MSC, noting its members are already familiar with the building.
He pointed out that Elio Longo, chief financial officer for the schools, was already a member, along with John Broadbin, assistant director of the Department of Public Works, and Vanessa Valadares, who served on the BOE’s Community Advisory Committee.
“They’re all residents,” Marpe said of the other members, including its chair, Joseph Fuller, an architect whom Marpe said “has already stepped forward to take a leadership role” in the task force.
According to the town’s website other members include Russell Blair, Richard Gordon, John Klinge, Dewey Loselle, Vincent Petrecca, Joseph Renzulli, Lois Roberts, Timothy Romano and John Rotondo.
“I’m so impressed with this group,” said member Karen Kleine, who along with others favored letting the MSC make up the task force and lead its direction.
Both Savin and Muktavaram argued, however, that at least some outside members should be part of it and not subject to the approval of the MSC to be involved, as some BOE members suggested.
“It’s an issue of credibility,” agreed Lee Goldstein, CMS PTA co-president. “I think the task force needs to be half and half.”
On Monday the BOE meets again, at which time it will propose other names outside the MSC to serve on the task force.
Meanwhile the MSC members who want to be involved in the task force are being asked to move forward immediately with their involvement, beginning with a walk-through of CMS already scheduled for Thursday.
