Four school projects move ahead

End-of-June deadline looms to file for state funding

NORWALK — The Board of Education Facilities Committee approved on Monday the specifications for four upcoming school projects, ahead of an end-of-June deadline to file for state funding.

The committee voted on education specifications, or “ed specs,” from the Norwalk Global Academy, Jefferson Elementary School, Norwalk High School and Rowayton Elementary School for a series of projects ranging from asbestos removal to new school construction.

“All of these ed specs, we are trying to get them keyed up to submit to the state for the June deadline. These are core expansion projects that the board is well familiar with,” said Norwalk Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Thomas Hamilton.

All four of the projects were unanimously approved by the committee and will be voted on by the full board at its Tuesday night meeting.

At the current location of the Columbus Magnet School, on Concord Street, the board would seek to create the International Baccalaureate elementary school known as the Norwalk Global Academy. Construction would result in a school with a 450student capacity, improved traffic flow in the vicinity and a new educational media center and learning commons, among other things.

“The learning commons is the feature that, I guess is the only thing that is really different from a traditional elementary school, it’s the need for a sort of oversized learning commons to accommodate ... up to three classrooms, so 75 children, in the learning commons area,” Hamilton said. “Other than that it is a fairly traditional-type model.”

Board member Barbara Meyer-Mitchell questioned plans to eliminate fixed shelving in the library in favor of a more flexible space, with book carts as a substitute — and wondered how drastically the school’s capacity for books would be reduced. She also questioned whether it would be possible to reinforce the ceiling in special education spaces to allow for occupational therapy swings, which Meyer-Mitchell said were

important tools for occupational therapists.

“In some cases, they no longer hang from the ceiling, they have a free-standing device that is supported on the ground and it has a hanging, about six feet above the ground,” Norwalk Public Schools Director of Facilities and Maintenance William Hodel offered as an alternative. The committee agreed to defer the questions of fixed shelving and occupational therapy swings to Chief Academic Officer Brenda Myers and Chief of Specialized Learning and Student Services Yvette Goorevitch, respectively.

The question looms whether Norwalk Global Academy will be built new or renovated-as-new, and will ultimately be decided by the Common Council. But according to facilities project manager Jim Giuliano, of Construction Solutions Gropu, in either case, the district will have the space necessary to make the physical changes necessary to accommodate an International Baccalaureate curriculum.

At Jefferson, plans to renovate include the additions of a technology lab and art lab, a media center and gymnasium and filling in the covered parking area near the front of the school to fit more classrooms. The project would also eliminate the need for portable classrooms and replace the area they occupy with a small field.

“Right now there’s no field, really,” Giuliano said. “So, in removing those (portables), there will be field space within the bus loop and there will be a little bit of field space ... probably to the south side of that bus loop.”

The $11.5 million project at Norwalk High School will include a new entrance, a renovation to the library to create a learning commons, and a new blackbox theater where once there was an auto shop.

The last project, at Rowayton, is a roughly $116,000 remediation of asbestos in floor tiles, classrooms, offices, hallways, the kitchen and a storage closet, set for this coming summer.

“That’s getting finalized and we need to file for our grant, the window of opportunity for this non-priority job is the first 10 days in June,” Hodel said. “It’s just another step to get us to file.”