The Town Hall meeting room was full Tuesday night for a special meeting of the full Board of Estimate and Taxation with a request from the Board of Education for $42,017,000 additional appropriation for a new Central Middle School.
The project received the necessary Municipal Improvement approval from the Planning & Zoning commission on Oct 17.
That was a bright spot for fans of the project.
The school was condemned in Feb 2022.
Children dispersed to other schools for two weeks until the building was shored up.
Children returned, but repairs are only intended to last five years.
The plan is to build a new school behind the existing one and have children and staff continue to use it during construction.
Some Republicans have insisted the proposed building is “super sized,” is too expensive at $112 million, and does not anticipate falling enrollment.
On the other hand, many have pointed out the building is designed to new codes and regulations, reflects increased construction costs and higher interest rates.
Just before the meeting each Republican on the board was handed a printout with photos of Dan Ozizmir and Bill Drake – neither is running for re-election – referring to their “dirty back room deal,” possibly a reference to the Republican caucus prior to the meeting where they signaled they would vote in favor of the appropriation.
And they did.
In the end the vote was:
8 YES votes: 6 Democrats – Weisbrod, Selbst, Kreuzer, Erickson, Ramer and Moriarty + plus 2 Republicans (Drake and Ozizmir).
3 ABSTAIN: Leslie Tarkington, Harry Fisher and Nisha Arora.
1 NO vote: Karen Fassuliotis.
At the start of the meeting, First Selectman Fred Camillo was given the floor.
“I stand here tonight in strong support of this project and of the work you have all done, the work the professionals and volunteers and the building committee, the (BOE) chairman Kelly and the BOE,” he said.
He also thanked Leslie Tarkington, who had asked for clarification on the MI process.
Building committee chair Tony Turner addressed the BET. Oct 24, 2023 Turner was accompanied by his committee members and team of hired professionals. Also present were vice chair of the BOE Christina Downey, and schools superintendent Dr. Toni Jones.
Building committee chair Tony Turner referred to a “bumpy road” and saluted the BET for scheduling the extra meeting.
He said the new school will be safe, secure and of a quality to last for 75 years. He added that it would facilitate an advanced curriculum and special ed programs, and had been vetted by multiple school experts in terms of cost, code and school construction.
Turner noted the proposed school had been designed for a highly constrained property, had community support, a sustainability component, and met high performance energy standards.
The new school maintains the two-team model, with a total building square footage of 125,47 sq ft.
Some costs are regulation driven, including ADA and number of toilets in relation to the number of occupants and size of school.
Other regulation-driven costs reflected regulations about pervious pavement, water retention and stormwater runoff.
Turner noted construction costs were projected to escalate.
Currently they are carrying about a 5% escalation factor per year, which is in line with what is taking place nationally.
All costs are based on the start date of October 30, 2024.
Occupancy is targeted at August 2026, in keeping within the 5-year life expectancy of temporary repairs to the existing building.
Mr. Turner said the building committee required documentation of full funding prior to applying to the state of Connecticut for grant money.
He mentioned the school served as a swing space for the other two middle schools, a swing space for GHS extracurricular activities and that Parks & Rec logs 1,600 hours annually in the school’s fields.
And, of course the RTM uses the school for its meetings.
Finally, he noted the number one reason people move to Greenwich, per the Greenwich Association of Realtors, was for the quality of its schools.
As for the $42,017,000, he said, “We think it’s a strong investment.”
BET members, Laura Erickson, Karen Fassuliotis, Dan Ozizmir, Leslie Tarkington, Leslie Moriarty, Jeff Ramer, Miriam Kreuzer and Stephen Selbst. Oct 24, 2023
BET members directed questions to the hired experts.
“What is that final number going to look like? Ms Arora asked. “Is it $112 million? Is it $114 million. Is it $108 million? We need a real number before we go to the state.”
“I’m trying to understand what is the urgency of today having that full appropriation and not waiting until we have more clarity on what that final number is going to look like,” Arora said.
The experts explained they could not go out to bid until they received a letter from the state authorizing them to do so, and to get that they had to first have full funding approved and a grant application submitted.
Mr. Ramer asked, “If some of my colleagues are weighing the possibility of seeking approval of funding in a smaller amount, I’d like to understand the impact of a cost reduction.”
The reply was a reduction of funding would impact the ability to meet the ed specs and timeline. It would mean reduction in sq footage, re-massing the building and returning to the the schematic design phase for a set back of about 9 months. Also, the MI might have to be resubmitted as well. And of course, a delay the timing on submitting the grant application to the state.
It was noted the grant application could not be submitted if the funding is conditioned by the BET.
The experts said a reduction/savings of about $10 million would correlate with a cost escalation of about $5 million.
Ms Arora asked about the structural integrity of existing school during blasting and chipping and removal of ledge.
The response was all structures would be monitored and that with current techniques “down to a point that you can barely feel the vibration.”
Ms Arora suggested conditioning the approval on an engineering report giving an assurance that safety in the impaired school building would not be compromised during construction.
“The spirit here is before we decide to move forward in that location we have confidence the existing school will not be compromised, and if it is going to be compromised that we make sure we have a place for those kids during the construction phase,” Arora said.
Leslie Tarkington seconded the motion.
Tony Turner said he did not think any professional engineer would be willing to say the building was not going to be compromised during construction.
Nisha Arora, Dan Ozizmir and Leslie Tarkington. Oct 24, 2023
Laura Erickson, a member of both the New Lebanon School and GHS MISA building committees, said, “We won’t do a construction project that endangers in any way the students and staff in the building.”
But, she addeo, “There are proven measures to deal with these construction conditions. There has to be an element of trust that we rely on the professional team.”
“At GHS there was a significant amount of rock and the school was operating the entire time,” Erickson noted. “There is an engineering solution for pretty much everything. That’s why we hire the professionals and experts.”
Besides, she said, “My understanding is you can’t have conditions on funding.”
There was a long discussion on this topic.
“The idea here is not to delay in putting a condition on this,” Arora said.
When the audience interrupted Arora, Mr. Ozizmir reminded them the meeting was not a public hearing and asked them to refrain from commenting.
Mr. Turner said the vendors could be asked to expedite an engineering report.
Ms Arora withdrew her condition.
Tarkington made a motion to add “a subject to release condition.”
“Subject to automatic release by the BET upon certification of the CMS building committee chair of completed design/development drawings, a cost estimate thereafter, and that the construction documents are in development.”
“What the heck is an automatic release?” Ms Erickson asked.
“I think we should approve the funding without conditions,” Erickson said.
Leslie Moriarty agreed.
“I’m still hearing roadblocks being placed at every step at what we’re trying to accomplish tonight,” said Leslie Moriarty.
“These conditions – saying I don’t trust the building committee to do their job quickly, which is what this last motion is, I don’t think is helpful,” she added.
Ms Tarkington withdrew her motion for a condition.
She said she did want a new CMS, but wanted respect for the town charter and for process.
She described the CMS project as having “floundered.”
“The Budget committee was approached by the then BOE chair and superintendent of schools in February 2022 with an emergency request for a new CMS for 511 students, 100,000 sq ft and $70 million. That request was approved immediately and unanimously by all members of the Budget committee and the BET,” she said.
“In contrast 20 months later, with limited progress, and having only recently received MI and preliminary site plan, the committee is here to request an additional appropriation of $42 million for a proposed school for 660 students, 125,000 sq ft and a current cost of $112 million,” Tarkington added.
Tarkington said the funding request was premature and broke with town process, and she would abstain.
All the Democrats said they planned to vote for the funding.
Karen Fassuliotis, Nisha Arora, and Dan Ozizmir. Oct 24, 2023
Karen Fassuliotis said she planned to vote against the funding because of its cost and building size.
“The cost for this building, all in, is almost $1,000 a square foot, and it will go up,” she said.
She said there was an elephant in the room.
“This is a building for 770 students when we only have 500 students and the number is projected to go down.”
She said the existing building had 8 bathrooms and the new one would have 18.
“The new building even has a room, according to the ed specs, with a teepee and a ball pit for a program that doesn’t even exist in middle schools,” Fassuliotis said. “If you think I’m not going to look out for the taxpayers of Greenwich, and expect my vote for this extravagance and excess, you just don’t know who I am.”
Harry Fisher, Laura Erickson and Karen Fassuliotis. Oct 24, 2023
Harry Fisher said the “terrible acrimony” in the community was distressing.
“This board, through its action or lack of action, has not delayed the process one iota. The acrimony out there is politically driven,” he added.
He said he would abstain because he heard there was a process for the grant that would make it in time for the legislative session to get a higher reimbursement.
“The chances of that succeeding are between slim and none. Hartford hates Greenwich,” Fisher said. “They don’t want to help us fund anything.”
Notably, the previous day Governor Ned Lamont celebrated $6.5 million state bonding for the Boys & Club for their renovation and expansion project.
Bill Drake, by phone, said he would vote in favor.
There was large applause allowed after the motion passed.
The bonding resolution passed in a vote of 11-1 with Ms Fassuliotis voting no.
In closing remarks, Mr. Turner thanked the board.
“There’s going to be 38,000 kids to walk through the new CMS doors over the next 75 years,” he said. “This investment made in the town tonight is phenomenal.”
RTM will take this up next Monday, Oct 30th at 8:00pm.