Selectmen Approve $50k for New Plan to Upgrade Schools

The Board of Selectmen approved a request to ask the Board of Finance for $50,000 to fund new conceptual plans for renovations and improvements to the town's elementary and middle schools.

Selectman George Crouse, a member of the recently reconstituted K-12 Building Committee, said this is the first step in a long process to revive the plan to enlarge West Vine Street School to accomodate kindergarten through Grade 4 students as well as upgrade and improve to Deans Mill School and Pawcatuck and Mystic Middle Schools.

There was a plan developed and discussed in 2007, but given the heightened focus on school security since the Sandy Hook shootings, it's largely outdated.

"We had a 2007 plan that we thought had too many spaces and nooks and crannies that we thought people could hide in," said Crouse. "We're very concerned with security."

The 2007 plan was marked by neighborhood resistance to the proposal to shutter West Broad Street School, which currently houses Pawcatuck students in Grades 3 and 4. Recently, St. Michael's School has expressed interest in the 113-year-old school if it becomes available, an option that First Selectman Ed Haberek said Wednesday he supports.