The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
THE ROAD TO A NEW SCHOOL
Proponents of new middle school educate voters who will decide $87.35M project’s fate
MIDDLETOWN — Parents, residents and others advocating for the building of a new middle school are appealing directly to taxpayers to support a ballot question that would allow the city to begin construction on the $87.35 million project in the spring.
The group, working as the Middletown Schools Yes political action committee, whose members are calling registered voters, promoting the plan at school and other local events and knocking on doors, has garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback for the new building, said Christopher Drake, who sits on both the Board of Education and Woodrow Wilson Middle School/Keigwin Middle School Building Committee.
Drake formed the PAC through the State Elections Enforcement Commission after the Common Council voted unanimously in June to endorse the new facility recommended by the building committee, formed more than two years ago.
The new school would house sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Presently, grade six students attend Keigwin Middle School, a 49-year-old building the district would close.
“Unsurprisingly, when you talk to parents, it’s a pretty easy sell,” Drake said.
As Middletown Schools Yes volunteers have gone around the city, the majority of those they’ve spoken to are in favor of the plan, he said.
“When we talked to some folks, who are maybe older, didn’t have kids in the school system, we got a negative reaction — which I wanted some of my people to see, because this is going to the voters,” Drake said. “It’s just not parents voting, it’s everyone in Middletown, so you’ve got to see the perspective of someone who doesn’t have a kid that will go to this school.”
The three-story, 150,000square-foot facility would have a capacity of 919 students. The state is expected to pick up $45.8 million of the cost, leaving the city with $41.55 million to bond. Work, which would begin in the spring, is estimated to be done by August 2021.
When the new Middletown High School on LaRosa Lane opened in 2009, the Woodrow Wilson building was converted to a middle school. The Woodrow Wilson building, erected in the 1950s, was last renovated in 1993.
The new school should last more than 30 years, according to the architects, TSKP Studio of Hartford.
Those championing the referendum question wanted to be proactive about getting information out to voters about the need for a new facility and the cost to taxpayers, said Common Councilwoman Mary Bartolotta, chairwoman of the building committee.
“There are millions of dollars in renovation that would need to be done to our high school that’s acting as a middle school. That doesn’t work well for any academic reasons, and the building itself is sick in many ways,” she said.
When the building committee was charged with examining options for the ailing structure more than two years ago, three possibilities were considered: a brand new Woodrow Wilson, one that would preserve the auditorium and incorporate it into the design, or a full renovation of the facility, Drake said.
“But the skeleton is not that great because it’s this massive, one-story building that has a giant footprint,” he said. “The plan is for a three-story, so it would be built up rather than out.”
After considering the results of the TKSP feasibility study, committee members decided against renovations.
“We’re not just building a new school because we feel like it, we’re building a new school because when we look at the school we have now, it has many issues that needed to be addressed and need to be addressed now,” Bartolotta said. “The cost difference between those two — building a new school and trying to fix what we already have — was so close that this was the time to take advantage of getting those types of dollars through the state, even in these tough economic times.”
When members of the public complained about Woodrow Wilson’s many issues and the effect on student education, the building committee was formed. At the time, Bartolotta said, the plan was to renovate the facility.
“Through the process, it became very clear that no small Band Aid would work,” Bartolotta said. “It originally started out as ‘Do we even need a new middle school? Do we really need to do this or can we move on here?’”
It was not a good option financially, for students or the city’s future, she said. “It is just drawing down all the time in the sense of the upkeep of the building alone.”
The city’s project proposal was submitted just before the state’s June 30 deadline to be eligible for the 56.43-percent reimbursement rate, Drake said. The amount of recoverable expenses changes every year based on economic factors in town, Drake said, and that rate has gone down since the high school was built.
It took two tries for the Middletown High School building project to pass muster with voters a decade ago, in June 2003 and April 2006, said Vincent Loffredo, chairman of the board. The former councilman also sat on that building committee.
“That was a very contentious issue in terms of where to locate it and build it,” he said. “It took two referendums, which meant a long-term delay and the costs increased.”
It’s crucial that this referendum pass on the first attempt, Bartolotta said. “Right now, we fall under the old guidelines, and it’s worth a shot so it costs the least amount for the taxpayers of Middletown to get a school that they need,” he said.
After July 1, the state won’t pay for new auditoriums in middle schools, Drake said. It is more likely to fund gymnatoriums now — combination gymnasiums and auditoriums — because of the cost savings.
In the last few weeks since Middletown Schools Yes was formed, Drake said supporters have handed out postcards, installed lawn signs, visited PTA meetings and the recent Board of Education candidates forum at the high school.
Ed McKeon, a former Board of Education member and parent of two boys at Middletown High, said a new middle school is long overdue.
“The school district has been pouring a lot of money into it every year just to deal with the fact that there are three different furnaces, all of which are in bad shape, a leaky roof,” he said.
The proposal has enjoyed support from officials and the community, he said. “People who would vote against it are people who are worried about the tax implication. The effect on taxes is going to be minimal.”
McKeon said he has only talked to two people who are against the project out of about 200 phone calls he has made. “Everyone else understands the need for it,” he said.
When he’s met by opposition, McKeon tells them a new facility not only improves academics, but also property values.
“Every year, when we ask for money for the schools, the best economic driver in the town is your schools,” he said. “If you have good schools, you’re more likely to have people who want to move into your town — both individuals that own property and companies.”
For information, see middleschoolyes.org or YesMiddleschool on Twitter.