Borough weighing future school options

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A proposed plan calls for building a new grades five to eight school at the site of the current Cross Street Intermediate School in Naugatuck. –RA ARCHIVE
A proposed plan calls for building a new grades five to eight school at the site of the current Cross Street Intermediate School in Naugatuck. –RA ARCHIVE

NAUGATUCK — The borough and school system are slowly moving forward with a plan to build a new grades five to eight school at the site of the current Cross Street Intermediate School.

The $86 million proposal is part of a long-term school facilities plan that would drastically change the face of the school and the borough’s downtown.

The long-term capital projects committee discovered about $30,000 left over from a bonded project. It wants to use the money to pay for an architectural rendering of the proposed school building, said committee Chairman Bob Neth, a burgess.

However, the company that will design the building, Kaestle Boos Architects of New Britain, wants to see educational specifications before it moves forward with drafting plans. New Superintendent of Schools Sharon Locke is not prepared to draft those specifications, and the Board of Education is not prepared to put money toward the plan.

Board of Education Chairman Dave Heller said he needs to know how the proposed school operating budget is going to shake out before the board determines whether it can put any money toward the specifications, which would likely require fees in the tens of thousands of dollars to pay an outside consultant.

And Locke said the plans cannot be drafted in a matter of days or even weeks.

“First of all, we have to get the board (of education) engaged in a detailed conversation about the project,” she said. “Then we need to get parents and community members involved in the process, as well as our own school staff.”

The educational specifications plan would be the district’s opportunity to discuss what types of facilities it anticipates needing to meet the requirements of students for the next 50-plus years.

Heller said he believes the board will likely support the project, but he said the board has not discussed it at length. All of the planning thus far has been done by a separate group of townspeople, business leaders and local officials who make up the long-term school facilities committee.

That group developed plans for the Naugatuck High School renovation, which is ongoing and is expected to be complete by next year. The $81 million high school plan was approved by voters at referendum. Naugatuck will receive about 75 percent reimbursement from the state for that project.

The borough anticipates receiving a similar reimbursement for other school projects. And officials plan to send the projects to referendum, as is required by borough charter.

The grades five to eight plan, known as Phase Two of the long-term plan, calls for separate environments for grades five and six and grades seven and eight. Later plans would also include renovating City Hill Middle School to new and converting it into an elementary school, tearing down the current Town Hall to make way for private development and converting Hillside Intermediate School and Salem Elementary School into a municipal government complex to replace Town Hall.

Naugatuck officials are thinking about going to referendum on Phase Two following the completion of the high school renovation project. It should be completed by this time next year. If approved, Phase Two would begin in the summer of 2017 and end in the fall of 2020.

Phase Three could begin immediately following the second phase and could include renovating and expanding current elementary schools at a cost of roughly $42.8 million. It would be completed in 2022.