Schools

Elementary Overhaul Plan Could Close Wapping School, Raze Others

Superintendent's still-evolving plan would move from five schools to four.

Councilor Jan Snyder briefed the Town Council Tuesday on a work-in-progress comprehensive plan to overhaul the town’s elementary schools that would likely close the Wapping School.

Snyder stressed that the plan, being developed by Superintendent Dr. Kate Carter, is still evolving but that given a forecast 9 percent decrease in enrollment, one of the five elementary schools would likely be closed.

Wapping, she said, which was renovated in 1989, is ADA compliant and centrally located, is the most obvious choice.

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“I’ve been through the closing of Wapping and the reopening of Wapping. It has served as a senior center… it’s a very flexible school,” she said.

Under the plan, the Parks and Recreation Department would move into the Wapping Elementary School, allowing the senior center to have its own space at the Charles N. Enes Community Center.

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The tentative plan also might include building a new school on the Orchard Hill property and using the old school to house students from each school as it was being either renovated or razed and rebuilt.

The plan would be done one school at a time, Snyder said, and is already overdue.

The Board of Education would seek a March 2014 referendum on the plan in order to meet state requirements and avoid a one-year delay. 

She enumerated the benefits of the plan: “It’s driven by enrollment, frees up a building for the town… and it is a long term plan.”

Councilor Keith Yagaloff said he hoped with the aggressive timeframe that the council would “very quickly coalesce around the idea.”

Dr. Saud Anwar was critical of the manner in which the plan was presented, saying that he would have preferred the superintendent to present a more comprehensive and detailed plan in order to avoid confusing the public.

Mayor Tom Delnicki said he was in favor of the one-school-at-a-time approach in order to keep costs down.

A plan to renovate South Windsor’s elementary schools has twice failed at referendum but Councilor Kevin McCann, who sat on the elementary school steering committee four years ago, said he believes the plan has a stronger chance now because residents are seeing the need.

“We took a look at the needs back then and they have gotten worse since then,” he said. “The schools were built to the standards of the time and don’t serve current educational needs in terms of space, configuration and mechanical – like electrical.”

Specifically, he said, Eli Terry Elementary School is unable to support any more computers because the electrical system is maxed out. That school uses electric heat, which is also inefficient. 

The schools also use portable classrooms, similar to trailers, to meet space needs. Those portable classrooms have a typical lifespan of 20 years and some of those in use in South Windsor are past 30 years. Three, McCann said were recently taken out of use because they were found to be structurally unsound.

Snyder said the superintendent intends to present a more detailed plan to the council in October, though the date was not firm. 


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