Board of Education Approves Plans for Fifth/Sixth Grade Academy

The Manchester Board of Education approved plans for a combined fifth/sixth grade academy that would see the existing Elisabeth M. Bennet Academy combined with the neighboring vacant Cheney Building in a unanimous vote during its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 10, 2013. 

The school board authorized a grant application to seek reimbursement for the majority of the project from the state, endorsed Educational Specifications for the new campus that would be required by the state in order to qualify for the reimbursement, and then voted to recommend that the Board of Directors place the project on the ballot for a November referendum. 

It is now up to the Board of Directors to decide whether or not to put the plan on the ballot of a November referendum and allow voters to decide its fate. 

Randal Luther, architect on the project for the firm of Tai Soo Kim Partners Architects, told the school board that the project was initially estimated at a cost of $18.8 million, but that the costs are now closer to $17.4 million. 

Luther said that the net cost to the town, after state reimbursement, would be about $7.2 million, but that that cost could also be reduced a further 10 to 15 percent if the town were to apply to the Connecticut State Board of Education for special legislation to have some unused space in the basement of the Cheney Building not counted against the total square footage of the building; the state reimburses school districts based on a formula of students per total square footage of a school building. 

The school board is also considering a "like new" reconstruction of Roberston Elementary School and a newly constructed Washington Elementary School, but it appears as though there will not be enough time to have those projects included in a referendum this year. 

The school board already voted once to include all three items on a November referendum, but doing so would mean the district would also have to draft a redistricting plan for the potential shuffling of students that could result from the possible closure of several elementary schools in the future. 

Board of Education member Neal Leon, a Democrat, said Monday that he felt the redistricting plan was essential to all three projects. 

"This project doesn't' go anywhere unless we do a redistricting plan, so where are we with that?" Leon asked. 

Interim Superintendent Richard Kisiel said the district has hired a demographic firm to help it draft such a plan, and that one could be forthcoming within the next 45 days.