The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New hub of city schools
Game-changer: Voters to decide fate of $87.3M middle school complex in November
The common council Tuesday unanimously approved the sending of a new middle school feasibility study to voters in November, one that calls for the construction of an $87.35 million complex that would incorporate the city’s sixth- through eighth-graders.
The three-story building, which would be erected where the field in front of Woodrow Wilson Middle School is now and set very close to Hunting Hill Avenue, also would house Keigwin Middle School students, according to Common Councilman Eugene Nocera, a member of the Woodrow Wilson Building Committee.
The Hartford-based TSKP Studio design firm is designing the project.
“It’s absolutely a dream come true,” said Nocera, who was principal of Woodrow Wilson from 2004 to 2010, in its most recent two locations. He
is also chairman of the 21st Century Parks Committee.
“The middle school has always been kind of a stepchild to our school system. It’s always received kind of a hand-me-down building.”
The council’s approval hinges on the securing of a 56-percent reimbursement from the state. “That has to be a guarantee, otherwise we’ll have to re-evaluate where we are,” Nocera said. “With the budget crisis, we have to be certain.”
Common Councilwoman Mary Bartolotta said the school, currently proposed at 150,000 square feet, could lose 25,000 square feet under the new state guidelines that take effect July 1. She is chair of the Woodrow Wilson Building Committee.
The state would pay $49.29 million if all costs are eligible, Bartolotta said, and the city would be responsible for $40.5 million.
If the plan is approved by voters, Bartolotta said, it would go out to bid again for an architect.
Nocera acknowledged rumors on the state level that say Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget won’t be fully adopted until Labor Day. “So we expect to know in plenty of time before the referendum,” he said.
The new 900-student capacity Woodrow Wilson could be completed by 2021, said Nocera, who stressed that the project is at the concept phase. If the plan is approved at election time, blueprints would be drawn up soon after, he said.
The pool and auxiliary gym will not be demolished, Nocera said, but would be turned over to the city’s recreation department. A new auditorium, cafeteria and gymnasium will be built and 150 parking spaces will be constructed where the building is now.
“We are well beyond a point in time in which we need a new middle school for our students,” said Bartolotta.
Members were very encouraged by the unanimous vote, she said.
“There is no better or more affordable time to start this process. The project would have only increased in cost and we would have missed out on millions of dollars in state reimbursement if we did not act now. In addition to losing out on potentially millions in savings, we would have had to reduce the size of the school due to new (Connecticut Department of Revenue Services) guidelines,” she added.
“This would lead to potentially larger class sizes and smaller spaces for important extracurricular activities,” Bartolotta added.
Superintendent of Schools Patricia Charles is happy that this “first and very important step” has taken place — and she looks forward to its eventual fruition.
“The students really can be proud of this school that they go to every single day and they deserve that,” said Charles, adding that future middle-schoolers will benefit from a modern facility that incorporates sports areas and other amenities in one location.
The Board of Education will take up the issue of the best choice for the use of Keigwin Middle School, on Spruce Street, which was built in 1974 and never renovated. “There are many options on the table,” Bartolotta added..
City middle-schoolers have been housed in several facilities over the years.
“When I was at the old Woodrow Wilson Middle School as principal, that was the old Middletown High School, then we got moved to the other old Middletown High on Hunting Hill Avenue, so the students never really had a new building,” Nocera said.
“Our new school will carry us into the future for our students,” Bartolotta. “The new building will be able to accommodate technology of the future and have the capacity to grow to provide a healthy learning environment for our students for years to come.”
“That area of Middletown will be the hub of the city in terms of its school system and parks and its essential portion of Middletown and it’s really going to be exciting to witness this renaissance happen,” Nocera said.
Having the city agree to invest so much into a new school after years of transience is satisfying, Nocera said.
“When we moved over to the old Middletown High School (the current middle school location on Hunting Hill), we were in tough times then, budget-wise,” he said. “The board could only scrape together $50,000 to make that transition from a high school to a middle school.
“That’s all we had that summer was $50,000 to do a few little repairs, and we made it work.”
“During the transformation from the high school to the middle school, not much was done to the building. It was decaying and aging for years,” Bartolotta said.
The superintendent is very excited for the project to move ahead.
“There are so many transitions that kids go through — they go to elementary, then they go to Keigwin, then they transition again and go to what’s currently our seven-eight, so there will be one beautiful campus and wonderful new fields across the street,” said Charles, who is hopeful the measure passes in November.
“We have to get it past a referendum, and then we go back and start the real work with the architect. This was a very important step, but we have to keep our eye on Election Day,” said Charles, who announced last month that she will tentatively retire Nov. 7.
On Friday, the city broke ground on Pat Kidney Park and the Woodrow Wilson Track & Field Tennis Courts, which was designed by Milone & MacBroom and will be constructed by Mountain View Landscapes and Lawncare. Funding for that project stems from the $33.5 million parks bond that voters approved in 2015, calling for renovations of parks throughout Middletown over an eightto 10-year period.
Nocera admits the city’s parks are in bad repair. “With tight budgets, the only way you can do it is invest a considerable amount of money to upgrade them,” he said.
The parks plan calls for the construction of the middle school campus, comprising a new stadium and Pat Kidney Field, tennis courts, walking trails, benches, lighting on the baseball and softball fields, and new parking places — a plan whose genesis was a 2011 feasibility study, Nocera said.
So far, Macdonough Elementary School’s fields have been upgraded, as has Spear Park on Main Street and Palmer Field. A new playscape installation at Butternut Park is underway, and soon renovations at the soccer fields on Long Hill Road will begin.
“The committee worked very hard last year, hand in hand with DRS, the Board of Education and TSKP to make sure the project was something Middletown deserved,” Bartolotta said.
“It’s very gratifying, not only to be a part of it, but to know that when it’s completed, it’s going to be something that the community is going to be very proud of, a really outstanding design. When it’s done, it’s going to change forever the face of that part of Middletown,” Nocera said.