NORWICH SCHOOL COMMITTEE TO START WORK WEDNESDAY

Norwich — The newly formed School Facilities Review Committee will hold its organizational meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall to begin its task of studying the city’s 15 aging school buildings for a possible renovation and consolidation plan.

The City Council approved a resolution to create the committee March 19, appointing 11 members representing the City Council, Board of Education, teachers, parents and the public. Several city and school administrators will serve as ex-officio members.

Mayor Peter Nystrom called the organizational meeting, will address the committee, and will lead the group through the election of officers.

The City Council last year rejected a $144.5 million major school consolidation and renovation plan that would have cost city taxpayers $57.6 million if current state reimbursement formulas remained intact. That plan called for renovating and expanding four elementary schools, closing three others, keeping the recently renovated Kelly Middle School for grades seven and eight and closing Teachers’ Memorial Middle School.

Aldermen objected that the four schools chosen were concentrated in the western half of the city, leaving students in other areas with longer bus rides and no neighborhood schools.

Since the rejection, the school system obtained a federal magnet school grant for both Kelly and Teachers’ Memorial for grades six through eight, likely meaning the two middle schools would remain in any new proposed renovation plan.