District: Schools beyond repair
‘We just can’t keep pumping money into this’
NEW FAIRFIELD — Water leaks, poor energy efficiency and other problems at the high school and Consolidated School are so severe that new buildings are needed, administrators said Tuesday during a tour of the buildings.
The best option is to construct a new high school on the existing site and build an addition onto Meeting House Hill School so students can leave Consolidated School, officials said.
Combined, these projects would cost between $109 million to $112 million, not including state grants the town hopes to
receive. The school board will vote Tuesday whether and when to pursue these projects.
The district has already spent thousands trying to repair the still-leaky roof at Consolidated and would need to spend thousands to fix the drainage problem at the courtyard of the high school, which sends water into the classrooms.
“We just can’t keep pumping money into this,” said Phil Ross, the director of buildings and grounds.
Between 15 to 20 people — mainly administrators and elected officials — toured the buildings Tuesday evening. Another public tour will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday beginning at Consolidated, while a public forum will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, followed by a presentation on the projects’ impact on debt service during the school board’s 7:30 p.m. meeting.
Kim LaTourette, an education board member who has sons, ages 10 and 12, in the schools, said she was surprised by the poor conditions.
“It’s eye-opening,” she said. “You see the worth of new buildings.”
High school’s failings
The high school was poorly built in 1974 and its problems have compounded, Ross said. He described the school as a $15 million building made for less than $5 million.
“You don’t achieve that without cutting corners,” he said. “They had to cut a lot of corners.”
Problems include the expensive energy costs because of a lack of insulation, Ross said. The wood shop is not ventilated properly, while the auditorium’s slope is very steep. The Office of Civil Rights cited the elevator for failing to meet accessibility requirements. Water leaks in from the exterior walls and the courtyard.
“This courtyard can look like a fish tank when it starts raining hard,” Ross said.
To fix these problems individually over time would cost $59.2 million, but those projects would be completed over several years, so costs would rise.
Building a new high school would cost $79.3 million if the district applies for a state grant by the end of June. That grant would bring the cost to the town down to $59.5 million. The project would cost more if the town applies for the grant next year.
Altering the high school would cost $70.2 million, but the town would only receive $1.9 million in reimbursement.
Water seeps into the main electrical switch room, power source for the high and middle schools, and the design room, where there are no windows and students sit on dirty chairs donated to the school by Dow Chemical Company in the 1990s.
“That room really just made me depressed,” Superintendent Pat Cosentino said as she left the design room.
“How do you get inspired in a room like that where you’re supposed to be doing graphics?” said Rich Sanzo, director of business and operations.
In the music room, windows take up the walls facing the courtyard, and it gets so cold the band director said she wears a jacket in the winter. There is little storage space, while acoustics are so poor she said she cannot hear students in the third row.
“It’s really difficult to work in here,” said Deanna Rivers, the band director.
Consolidated’s deficiencies
Consolidated, built in 1940, has had several additions over the years, but these additions were the “lowest cost form” of construction, Ross said.
The $20,000 put into the north side roof over the last five years has done little to stop the leaking, he said. Nails are coming up on the roof on the other side of the building. Teachers keep buckets in their classrooms to catch the water and must raise their voices to talk over the loud ventilator system, Ross said.
The foundation in part of the building is sagging, while leaks also come from the siding. The parking lot is cramped. When one of the boilers failed, the school had to open late. The water tank is too small, so if a pump died school would need to be canceled. Single-pane windows in sections of the school make the building hard to heat, Ross said.
It would cost $30.1 million to move second-graders, who go to Consolidated, into a wing at Meeting House Hill School and build an addition on Meeting House for prekindergarten through first grade. The state grant would bring the cost to the town to $23.4 million.
But if the town applies for the grant next year, the total project would be $30.7 million, with the cost to the town estimated at $23.8 million.
Altering Consolidated would cost $37.9 million, with town spending $35.8 million, pending a state grant. Isolated projects are estimated at $34.5 million, but this figure would rise over the years.
Finding a place to teach students during renovations would be challenging, especially if asbestos or other chemicals were found.
“The renovations are so invasive,” said Rusty Malik, of QA+M Architecture. “You just can’t fix them while they kids are in school.”