Ridgefield schools unveil $39M capital plan
“They’re desperately in need of sound dampening, some sort of acoustic systems that will lower the decibel levels. If you’ve ever been in a lunch wave in an elementary school, you’re good for about 30 seconds.” Joe Morits Director of Facilities for Ridgefield schools
RIDGEFIELD — The 70-year-old auditorium at Veterans Park Elementary School is slated for $775,000 worth of repairs and upgrades as just one of the many projects in the Ridgefield Public Schools proposed $39 million fiveyear capital improvement plan.
“It has been on the capital planning horizon for 12 years, and it’s finally worked its way up to the top spot,” Joe Morits, director of facilities for the Ridgefield school district, said of the aging auditorium.
“This project is basically going to do a cosmetic makeover of all new seats. We’re going to do a new sound system. We’re going to refinish the stage, new curtains, as well as bring it up to code,” he said. “Year two will be all the new stage lighting controls and house lighting upgrades.”
At a Board of Education meeting on Nov. 27, Morits presented the RPS capital improvement plan, which
includes $19.9 million for renovations of the Ridgefield High School auditorium as well as acoustical improvements in schools, student and staff bathroom renovations and flexible seating arrangements for classrooms in the district’s nine schools.
“This is chartered by the town to produce (and) develop a five-year look for planning purposes. … It’s intended to serve as a dynamic planning tool,” Morits said. “It’s reviewed annually. We go through a pretty good revision process to ensure that there’s consistency and also to reflect any changes and shifts in priorities and replace
aged-out assets.”
The district tries to keep its annual capital spending between $2 million and $3 million district-wide, he said.
The plan doesn’t cover routine maintenance and repairs; those costs will be in the district’s operating budget, Morits said.
“But it does include significant renovations and major repairs and renewals for damaged or deteriorating assets as well as investments in new assets,” he said.
‘We want them collaborating’
Aside from the high school auditorium, other items in the capital plan with high price tickets include districtwide network infrastructure upgrades and replacements budgeted at $991,000 and a districtwide ventilator replacement program budgeted at $1.5 million.
Additionally, the district plans to renovate student and staff bathrooms at Branchville Elementary School, bringing them up to code by retiling, putting in new fixtures, doing plumbing work and creating accessible stalls, Morits said. This would cost about $161,000.
At Farmingville, Branchville, Scotland and Barlow Mountain schools, the district is looking to upgrade the cafetoriums, which are combined cafeterias and auditoriums.
“They’re desperately in need of sound dampening, some sort of acoustic systems that will lower the decibel levels. If you’ve ever been in a lunch wave in an elementary school, you’re good for about 30 seconds,” Morits said. The five-year cost of the projects would be about $178,000.
A project to upgrade LED lighting and replace over 300,000 fixtures at the high school would carry a $1.3 million price tag, he said. Also at the high school, “flexible seating options” would be incorporated.
“Currently, we have attached hard plastic desks and chair set-ups that you have to scratch across the floor to move them. It’s simply not how we’re teaching kids anymore,” he said. “We don’t want kids in straight rows. We want them collaborating. We want them learning from each other.”
With this flexibility, he said, “We’re talking about moving the teacher from the center of the classroom to the students being the center of the classroom.”
Transitioning every department from the traditional set-up of seats to chevron-shaped desks would cost from $120,000 to $140,000, Ridgefield High School Principal Jacob Greenwood said.
Another item in the capital plan is updating the visual performing arts spaces at several schools.
“This is a multiyear project. We’re looking at Farmingville and Scotland in year one, and it’s basically updating the curtains, refinishing the stage floors, adding spotlighting and controls,” Morits said. “In year two, we’re looking at … Barlow Mountain and then we’re going to be looking at Ridgebury as well.”