The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
BOE unveils details of new $60 million elementary school
Referendum set for next year
MADISON — A referendum date on a project that would allow Madison to build a new elementary school and shutter three others is set for early next year.
A draft of the $60 million plan, presented at a Sept. 14 Board of Education meeting, would create the new Jeffrey Elementary School and would close Jeffrey and Ryerson elementary schools and the Town Campus Learning Centers.
The vote is scheduled for Feb. 15, 2022.
Under the current plan, Brown Intermediate School would be converted to a kindergarten- through fifth-grade school, and Polson Middle School would be renovated.
The elementary
The building will include four preschool classrooms, five kindergarten classrooms, nine first- and second-grade classrooms, and 11 total for grades three, four and five. Every classroom will have air conditioning and Wi-Fi that can handle one-to-one devices, according to the draft.
education specifications were presented by Dan Hansen, an educational consultant who has been helping guide Madison Public Schools through the project’s process. He specifically helped develop the education specs for the school, which must be submitted to the state when applying for grants.
While the project would cost an estimated $60 million, Superintendent Craig Cooke said the district would be eligible for state reimbursement for up to 18.5 percent of the cost.
“The ed specs document before you tonight was developed with the input of nearly 45 staff members, including administrators, teachers and support staff from all program areas,” Hansen said, according to a meeting recording.
The document does not represent the design of the school, but shows the spaces required for all program areas, he added.
Some of these spaces include a visual arts space with a kiln room and storage, general and instrumental music room, gymnasium, and STEAM lab.
Other special spaces include a world language room, rooms for tutoring and special services, and a library media center.
The building will include four preschool classrooms, five kindergarten classrooms, nine first- and second-grade classrooms, and 11 total for grades three, four and five. Every classroom will have air conditioning, and Wi-Fi that can handle one-to-one devices, according to the draft.
The current plan also includes separate play spaces for the younger children that will be closer to their classrooms, whereas those for older children will be closer to the gymnasium.
Community use was also taken into account. Plans for the gym to be 6,000 square feet with a platform stage would allow groups such as the Madison Parks and Recreation Department and Registrar of Voters to continue using the space.
Cooke said the gym will not be as large as Brown Intermediate School’s but will be usable for fullcourt basketball and other activities.
The draft also details energy efficiencies being considered for the new building, such as roofmounted solar panels, geothermal walls, and light sensors to reduce electrical loads.
After the plan was presented, board member Katie Stein questioned classroom numbers, wondering why they changed so much between grade levels. She wondered why, since kindergarten has five classrooms in the plan, first grade didn’t as well.
“We oftentimes get bubbles where we’ll have a large kindergarten class, and then maybe need one less classroom the next year in kindergarten, so we wanted to be prepared on the high end of that, because, as you see, the kindergarten classrooms are larger than the other grade levels,” Cooke replied.
Stein also said the board had heard from the community about school space if Madison’s population increases, as the plan calls for closing two schools in the district.
Cooke said that the plans for the new elementary school were based off the district’s eight-year projection, which will be updated this fall. He said that Brown Intermediate School would be bigger than the new school, giving the district additional space.
The earliest this new school plan would go into effect would be for the 2025-26 school year.
The project’s budget will be presented at a Board of Education meeting Oct. 12.
Madison Public Schools is also working on purchasing property on Mungertown Road for the project.