Stratfield School Expected to Only Partially Open on Opening Day

More than 10,000 students return to Fairfield's 16 public schools on Thursday, but students in Stratfield School, which is undergoing a $17.6 million expansion and renovation, won't have access to the school's lower level right away, according to Town Building Official James Gilleran.

"Almost everything will be accessible to them, except that lower level; they're still working down there, there's still stuff to be done. We had to partition off the hallway," Gilleran said Tuesday evening.

The lower level includes the school's library, a computer lab and four classrooms, but an eight-classroom addition, which was built from February until late August, was finished and would be available to students and teachers, Gilleran said. "That's finished. The new addition's ready," he said.

Laura Shea, Stratfield School's PTA president, said the new classroom addition was beautiful and included a large amount of glass by an interior staircase that gave kids a great view of trees. "Come fall, when the leaves change, it will be like the kids are outside," she said.

Shea said older classrooms that had been renovated looked as good as new ones in the addition. She said she wasn't concerned the lower level wouldn't be ready on opening day because kids during the first few days of school would be excited to be in their classrooms and seeing friends and changes that have taken place to the Melville Avenue elementary school. She added that school wasn't in session next Monday due to Labor Day so construction workers had time to get the lower level ready over the upcoming long weekend.

Cristin McCarthy Vahey, a Stratfield parent and District 6 member of Fairfield's Representative Town Meeting, said she hadn't heard from parents who were concerned that the lower level wouldn't be ready on opening day, but added that she didn't think many were aware of it yet. "I think that a lot of parents probably aren't aware of it. That hasn't gone out to the schoolwide community, and, frankly, I think people understand, and have understood all along, the school is going to be under construction this year," she said.

"People have questions and are curious, but most people are willing to go with it as long as they know what's going on," Vahey said.

Vahey said she personally wasn't concerned that the lower level wouldn't be accessible right away because the Stratfield Building Committee and Malkin Construction Corp. of Stamford, the general contractor, "have done a phenomenal job in terms of the timing and all the steps along the way."

"They've really been on top of it," she said. "You always discover things that aren't expected, and you have to deal with that and they have...I hope people will continue to be patient because this year it will be more complicated having an occupied renovation."

Gilleran said he expected to issue a temporary certificate of occupancy for the school Wednesday afternoon and that the lower level would probably be accessible in a few days.

"That will be open. It may not be open this week, but it will be open for the kids to use as a library," Al Kelly, chairman of the Stratfield Building Committee, said Tuesday evening.

The elevator in the school isn't ready and had to be partitioned off, and lighting outside in the parking lot also wasn't ready, meaning the school can't hold nighttime events, Gilleran said. "I was told it would be finished by Daylight Savings [Time], and, right now, there's no nightly functions until lighting is finished," he said.

Kelly said the new classroom addition was completed two days ago and that work scheduled to take place during the school year involved renovations to older classrooms, in blocks of three or four classrooms at a time, and construction of an administrative wing.

Gilleran said work wouldn't be done while students were in school. "There is still work to be done, but it can't be done while the children are in school. That's the way the school building committee, the fire marshal and myself left it. We don't want them doing any work while the kids are in school. They can come to work from 4 to midnight if they want to," he said.

Gilleran said workers would be able to work in the lower level, though, but couldn't do work that involved welding or cutting while children were in school.

Inspectors in the town's Building Department are scheduled to visit the school again Wednesday, and Gilleran said they'd go up to the school whenever they're needed. "We'll be going out every day when they have something for us to look at," he said.

Stratfield School, built in 1929, is the oldest public elementary school in the district. Malkin Construction Corp. is also the general contractor on the upcoming expansion and renovation at Fairfield Woods Middle School.