Back to the polls for good cause in Groton

Two years ago, Groton voters approved a $184.5 million school building plan that included renovating old schools. Now an alternative plan has come forward that would provide new schools at the same cost.

There can be good reasons to choose to renovate and upgrade older schools instead of demolishing buildings and constructing new facilities. Some older schools feature distinctive and historic architecture that never could be duplicated in new construction. Sometimes, it’s simply much more cost effective to renovate.

In the case of the Groton school building project, however, there are no overpowering reasons to choose renovation over new construction. The residents of Groton are being offered a gift in the form of two brand new elementary schools for the same price as the plan approved at referendum, which calls for retrofitting two middle schools for a new use as elementary schools.

It’s an alternative townspeople should readily accept.

Two years ago, Groton voters approved a $184.5 million school building plan. The plan calls for building a single new middle school to bring all the town’s middle schoolers together to attend classes in a new building near Fitch High School. A second part of the plan is to renovate the two existing middle schools — West Side Middle School on Brandegee Avenue and Carl C. Cutler Middle School on Fishtown Road in Mystic — into elementary schools.

When the state, which is contributing $100 million of the project cost, changed rules to include a cost analysis of the project to determine whether building new elementary schools would be more cost effective than renovating old buildings, state and town officials studied the issue. They concluded the more cost effective approach is to build two new elementary schools on the West Side and Cutler sites and then demolish the older buildings.

While it seems counter-intuitive that the cost of new construction would be the same as renovation, Groton Schools Superintendent Michael Graner said the work of retrofitting buildings designed to serve the needs of middle schoolers for use by younger students is complex. For example, weight bearing walls will need to be removed and new bracing installed to allow the classrooms of varying sizes that served a variety of needs for the older children to now become uniform-sized classrooms for elementary pupils. It can also be trickier to design suitable bathroom space for younger children in existing buildings.

In addition, new buildings are more energy efficient and technology for express use by elementary pupils can be installed more seamlessly. The expected life span of new buildings is longer than that for renovated schools.

There is enough space on the West Side and Cutler sites to allow for new construction to begin a year earlier than planned, thus saving money otherwise needed to address possible increased future construction costs. Graner said delaying construction adds an estimated $2 million to the project.

Groton school officials traveled a difficult road for many years before residents approved the building plan that calls for renovating the existing middle school buildings. It might seem like tempting fate to bring this alternative plan back to the voters.

But there is no need for worry. If residents reject the idea of new elementary schools, the original plan to renovate will remain in place and move forward.

The Town Council and Representative Town Meeting already approved bringing the alternate proposal to voters on Dec. 11. Now, school officials face the challenge of convincing a holiday-focused electorate to turn out to support this plan. Most residents likely hoped to put thoughts of going to the ballot box behind them for a while following a turbulent midterm election that in Groton also included a contentious charter change proposal.

Still, the alternative proposal appears to make a lot of sense and will benefit Groton school children for many years into the future.

We urge residents to support this school building plan on Dec. 11.