Riverfield School Still in the Mix

Riverfield School's still on the table.

The school district's Central Office had envisioned additions and renovations at Riverfield, Mill Hill and Holland Hill elementary schools over the next four years, but Riverfield School is the only one that still seems viable in that timeframe.

"Everything's gotten pushed out," Board of Education Vice Chairman Pam Iacono said Sunday afternoon. "We realize we can't have everything at once and are cognizant of the taxpayers' ability to pay."

"The only thing, really, in the next four to five years would be Riverfield...That's the only one I know of being on the table," Iacono said of elementary schools. "Holland Hill and Mill Hill are definitely way off in the distance."

Iacono noted that the town has undertaken a $24.2 million expansion and renovation of Fairfield Woods Middle School and that renovations at Roger Sherman School were being reviewed by the Special Projects Standing Building Committee, a group of volunteer residents that oversee projects too small for a building committee. Renovations at Sherman will have to be less than $1.6 million because Sherman's in a flood plain and if renovations exceed 50 percent of its $3.2 million appraised value, much more extensive renovations will have to be done due to Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations.

The Board of Education's Facilities, Technology and Long Range Planning Committee just finished choosing a middle school feeder pattern so students will fill the larger Fairfield Woods Middle School in 2011-12, and the committee is scheduled in the coming months to look at what schools should be renovated and expanded. That work, along with a potential redistricting at the elementary school level, will be aided by new enrollment projections that the Board of Education expects to receive in the fall.

The report from the school district's Central Office had envisioned $6 million worth of work at Riverfield - $4.53 million for a six-classroom addition and renovations in 2011-12 and $1.37 million for upgrades to Riverfield's "core facilities," such as its gym, cafeteria and library, in 2012-13.

The report also had envisioned a four-classroom addition at Holland Hill School in 2011-12 ($3.65 million) followed by core upgrades to the school in 2012-13 ($1.7 million), and an addition and renovation at Mill Hill School in 2012-13 ($3.9 million) and core upgrades at Mill Hill in 2013-14 ($2.225 million.)

While the additions and renovations at Mill Hill and Holland Hill appear to be off the table, Iacono said Board of Education members need to examine Central Office's recommendation to expand the two high schools' cafeterias and kitchens in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 fiscal years.

Fairfield Ludlowe High School and Fairfield Warde High School each have a capacity of 1,400 students, but the combined enrollment at the two high schools was projected Nov. 30 to total 3,229 in 2014-15 and 3,357 in 2015-16.

The cost of enlarging Ludlowe High's cafeteria and kitchen was estimated at $2.1 million, with work taking place in 2011-12, while expanding Warde High's cafeteria was estimated at $1.2 million and envisioned in 2012-13, according to Central Office's report.

Central Office also recommended replacing windows at Ludlowe High and Warde High within the next four years - each project would cost $3 million.

The Board of Selectmen last spring approved $3 million to replace Ludlowe's windows, but the Board of Finance on May 5 tabled that request. A funding request to replace Warde's windows hasn't been submitted to town boards, nor has a funding request for the first of four phases to replace roofs at Warde High.

Iacono said she believes additional classroom space won't be needed at Warde High or Ludlowe High, but extra space may be needed in the cafeterias. "We need to most definitely look at these cafeterias and look at whether they need to be bumped out," she said.

"After Riverfield, we need to say, 'What's our biggest priority?' and look at the high schools as opposed to the elementary schools," Iacono said.

It will be up to town boards to determine whether Riverfield's six-classroom addition is a "bricks and mortar" addition or a prefabricated modular annex.

The town installed prefabricated annexes onto Osborn Hill and Sherman schools, but Iacono said the district is hoping for a bricks-and-mortar addition at Riverfield. She said the addition at Sherman had to be prefabricated due to FEMA's flood zone requirements and that Central Office had requested a prefabricated addition at Osborn Hill.

Riverfield School was built to accommodate 399 students, but had 465 students on June 1. Mill Hill was built to accommodate 378 students, but had 479 on June 1, and Holland Hill was built for 315 students and had 337 on June 1.

The Board of Finance is scheduled Aug. 30 to hold a capital financial planning summit with members of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Education, Representative Town Meeting and Supt. of Schools David G. Title to map out the town and school projects that need to be done over the next several years. The meeting is at 7:30 p.m. in the Education Center, 501 Kings Highway East.