Mar 27, 2008
School board to discuss what to do with Glenville students
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The Board of Education could be zeroing in on a solution of where to put Glenville School students during the building’s renovation, and the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center is likely to play a significant part.
The full board is scheduled to meet tonight at 7:30 at Central Middle School and the agenda includes action on a relocation option. The board is now tasked with finding a new location for the students with renovation set to begin in July. Mold was discovered in the modular classrooms that students were supposed to use for the next school year.
At the very least, the board will hear a report from an advisory committee. The committee met Tuesday night and focused on several options, including a full remediation of the modular classrooms, building new modulars or splitting the school’s grades into two, three or four buildings.
Options involving using the civic center, which is located close to the existing school building, are the clear favorite among the committee and community. An option was even added that would put several grades in the civic center, which is run by the town and already leases space to a private day care company, and then install new modulars close by for the remaining students.
Several committee members praised the idea of relocating some students to the civic center, calling it the “most attractive option.”
Questions remain, though, about whether the civic center is a feasible site. A meeting will be held tomorrow by First Selectman Peter Tesei for board members and town land use agencies to discuss whether the site would work.
Both board members and the community clearly favor splitting up the students into as few buildings as possible. The mold discovery forced the relocation of Hamilton Avenue School students into six other schools, something the board doesn’t want to repeat.
“The more buildings you go into, the less Glenville identity you have,” said Board Vice Chairman Leslie Moriarty, who is chairing the advisory committee. Ms. Moriarty said the board will hear all options tonight and then will be able to take the ones off the table that “don’t make sense.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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