Preliminary designs revealed for new SoNo school building
NORWALK — After decades without a dedicated neighborhood school, South Norwalk could soon have its own elementary school as part of a proposed construction project presented to the city’s Board of Education.
Superintendent Alexandra Estrella unveiled preliminary plans Tuesday that call for the creation of a new 25-classroom building on Henry Street to house the Columbus Magnet School, a K-8 school that serves students from across the city.
Under the proposal, Columbus’ existing building, which sits nearby on Chestnut Street, would become home to a new elementary school solely serving the South Norwalk area for the first time in more than 40 years.
“This is an opportunity for us to kind of engage in some critical thinking in how we utilize the current building that we have, as well as some of the available space to potentially create a South Norwalk school, as well as provide (Columbus Magnet School) with a new building that has been in discussion for some time,” Estrella said.
Plans to erect a new Columbus Magnet School have been in the works for years, but unexpected hiccups along the way have delayed construction from moving forward.
The new designs presented to the board, which were developed by design firm DLR Group and Newman Architects, would place two schools on a 3.25-acre site, steps from the South Norwalk train station.
The proposed new building, which would house the Columbus Magnet School, would feature three floors, rooftop recreation space and a walkway connecting the building to the existing schoolhouse on Chestnut Street, according to Jana Silsby, a principal with DLR.
The building could hold up to 564 students, but the urban site it would sit on would not allow for the installation of a large multiuse field or a new aboveground parking lot.
A second option presented to the board included the new building, as well as an addition to the existing school that would boost the building’s capacity from 290 students to 428 students. The addition would feature six new classrooms, a cafeteria, a kitchen and a basement garage.
A third option would feature an even larger addition that would include 12 new classrooms, bringing the capacity to 554 students. The garage featured in the second option would also be expanded.
According to Estrella, the exact size of the new building — and any additions to the existing schoolhouse — will depend on the results of an ongoing demographic study that will project future enrollment trends in the city . A demographer is scheduled to address the school board later this month.
Estrella said the new concepts represented a rough outline of just a few options available to the board. She noted there are funds available to acquire land in South Norwalk, but it would likely take several months before a purchase could be finalized. In the meantime, school officials are facing a June 30 deadline to submit an application to the state.
“We want to make sure that as we continue to immerse ourselves in this dialogue, that it’s a collaborative dialogue between the (Board of Education) and the community at large,” Estrella said. “This provides multiple potential alternatives in a very creative, outof-the box way.”
Mayor Harry Rilling, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said the city is committed to building a new South Norwalk school as quickly as possible. He noted the city has already allocated nearly $80 million to the ongoing process and urged board members to consider the proposal with an open mind.
“I know that looking at it at the very beginning it becomes a little bit shocking, I guess, to the conscious because we’re not used to seeing something like this,” Rilling said, referring to the preliminary designs. “But because of the limitations we have in the South Norwalk area, we have to think outside of the box and we have to try to be as creative as we possibly can.”
Board member Mike Barbis expressed concern about the size of the buildings and the space available to students. He pointed to other elementary schools in the city that offer expansive outdoor recreation spaces.
“Compared to New York City, obviously it’s nothing. But for Norwalk that would be very, very different from any of our other schools,” Babris said. “That’s a lot of kids in a very small amount of space with limited recreation areas.”
Silsby, however, said the proposed design falls in line with other schools built in dense environments in New England and around the country.
“It is an urban site — there’s no doubt about it — and it would definitely be different from what other sites around Norwalk have experienced,” Silsby said. “But it is consistent with other urban architecture and other urban schools.”
Board member Sarah LeMieux, whose children attended Columbus, said she was “very impressed” with the designs. She said the board should weigh the benefits of building a new school on city-owned land against continuing to search for a larger parcel elsewhere in the area.
“There hasn’t been a neighborhood school for South Norwalk kids for 40 years, something like that,” LeMieux said. “That is a huge inequitable reality and I think coming up to a solution to that quickly is also a goal, for sure.”