A week after the Town Council unanimously rejected the Board of Education’s choice to build a new Stratford High School at Longbrook Park rather than renovate the existing SHS, the council’s Building Needs Committee voted unanimously April 21 to restart a plan to renovate the existing SHS.
During the lead-up to the Board of Education’s vote to build new at Longbrook, a working group searched and found no other adequate land in Stratford for a new school. As Building Needs Committee Chairman Paul Hoydick said, “We would love to build new, but land is the issue.”
A plan to renovate Stratford High was created in 2010 and the Town Council bonded money for what was then a roughly $56-million project with a 50% reimbursement from the state.
That original project stalled for reasons that include normal approval time taken by the state to evaluate projects for grant money, and possibly for other reasons that are not clear. As years went by without a renovation shovel hitting the ground, a new schools superintendent was hired in mid-2013, and she hired a new chief operating officer, and the Board of Education had four of seven members elected in November.
Before Building Needs voted on Monday to restart a plan to renovate, the committee was told by architect George Perham and school building consultant John Meno to expect the costs to be about $90 million. That number does not count possible, but unknown, additional costs if hazardous materials are discovered.
Reasons for the $34-million increase in estimated costs for renovation include a much different scope of work, according to Board of Education Chief Operating Officer Clarence Zachery. The $56-million project was more of a cosmetic renovation, which does not get the school to meet education specifications for the 21st Century, Zachery said.
With a new plan that meets educational specifications, classroom size will increase from approximately 650 square feet currently to 750 to 800 square feet, said architect George Perham, and “you can’t do that with the existing footprint.”
So construction of a new add-on building is now in the renovation plan.
Also, the school construction market has changed significantly in the past four years, the consultants said. There are fewer construction companies in business after the recession, and demand for those that remain has increased.
Meno, of Capitol Region Education Council, resisted saying that there may be ways to reduce the $90-million budget, because thorough studies of the structural integrity and possible environmental hazards have not been conducted.
Committee member Alvin O’Neal asked if it might be better to demolish the current Stratford High School and build new on that site, and Perham said that would certainly cost more than renovation alone.
All committee members present voted for renovation: Hoydick, Linda Manos, Christian Barnaby, Len Petruccelli, O’Neal, Dan Senft, and Alan Llewelyn.
One high school in the future?
Shortly after the vote to renovate Stratford High, during an informal conversation during a recess, committee member Dan Senft wondered aloud about realigning school facilities and combining Stratford’s two high schools into one. Senft told The Star that he believes the town has never done thorough due diligence on that question.
Councilwoman Stephanie Philips, who sat in and observed the Building Needs meeting, followed up on Senft’s question and suggested that the town should start now analyzing the idea of a one-high-school town for four to six or 10 years from now.
Money spent now on renovating Stratford High would not be wasted, Philips said, figuring that another tenant would make use of the building if the school were relocated.
Stratford High School is set for a thorough renovation. Greg Reilly photo.