Committee to review potential purchase of school

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The Community School Purchase Committee will hold its first meeting May 11. Prospect is considering buying the school from the Region 16 school district. –REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
The Community School Purchase Committee will hold its first meeting May 11. Prospect is considering buying the school from the Region 16 school district. –REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

PROSPECT — A nine-member committee will begin its work next week on the town’s proposed purchase of Community School.

The Community School Purchase Committee is to represent the community in the purchase of the school from the Region 16 school district and its transformation into a building that will serve community needs.

Mayor Robert Chatfield said he can picture basketball games, dances and fundraising events, a building that is used by different groups in the community and residents of all ages.

“That is my hope,” Chatfield said.

Chatfield is formally charging the group with the job at a meeting at the school May 11. The committee includes members of diverse backgrounds, most of whom have served the town before. The list includes former Town Council members Shirley Sabo and Frederick Harkins and former and current Region 16 school board members Marie DeLage, John Altson and Robert Hiscox.

A sales price for the building has yet to be determined and will likely depend on appraisals, Chatfield said. Town voters would have to approve the purchase.

Built in 1934, Community School, at 12 Center St., was once the town’s only school. Chatfield, the state’s longest-serving mayor, graduated from the school in 1957. It has had several renovations and improvements over the years.

The school is across the library and near other property owned by the town on Center Street.

Prospect first proposed buying Community School more than two years ago. The timing is finally right as Community School’s last students walk through its doors in June. Students from the school and Algonquin School will start a new year at a newly built Prospect Elementary School at 75 New Haven Road in the fall.