Ed Board OKs Alternative Plans If GHS Auditorium Project Fails

Faced with the possibility that the town’s fiscal board will reject funding the proposed $28.8 million project to enlarge and improve the Greenwich High School auditorium and music instruction space, the Board of Education approved a list of alternative projects that would total about 20 percent of the price tag on the high school project

Ed board Chairman Steven Anderson Thursday night said the new list of projects totaling nearly $6 million was compiled at the behest of the Board of Estimate and Taxation. The BET is poised to decide the 2011-2012 budget and capital improvement project recommendations on March 31 – two days after it holds a March 29 public hearing on the proposed fiscal plans that total $359 million.

At the heart of the issue is the Board of Education’s unanimous recommendation the BET approve $28.8 million to enlarge and improve the high school auditorium, and create more classroom and rehearsal space for students in the school’s award-winning performing arts programs. The plan – which has been described as ‘shovel-ready’ because design plans have been approved by town land-use agencies – has been on the drawing boards for several years.

During budget deliberations earlier this month, the BET Budget Oversight Committee cast a tie vote on whether it was economically prudent to ramp up the town’s debt by funding the project. It did the same with the proposed $24 million Central Fire Station project. Supporters of the high school project – commonly referred to as MISA – fear that if funding is excluded for the coming year, that support for the project will wan and it never will be built.

The board voted 6 -2, with Marianna Ponns Cohen and Peter Sherr voting against it, supported a revised capital improvement project list compiled by Superintendent Dr. Sidney Freund.

Freund’s recommendations include: $750,000 for redesigning and expanding access to and parking at the North Street School; $2 million to replace rusted and leaking windows at Central Middle School; $300,000 to replace asbestos plaster classroom ceilings and lighting at Julian Curtiss School; $2,400,500 to renovate batherooms at Julian Curtiss, New Lebanon, North Street and the Old Greenwich elementary schools; $275,000 for new auditorium seats at Central Middle School; $125,000 to install an elevator at the school administration’s Havemeyer Building; $900,000 to install Wifi at the high school and all three middle schools; $617,500 to install new windows at the International School at Dundee.

"I was asked to come up with $5 to $6 million in projects and I got it as close to $6 million as I could," said Freund.

Anderson said he expects a full-court press of lobbying of BET members to support MISA to continue in the days leading up to the March 31 vote.

Board member Nancy Kail said, "I hope you convey that we are doing this with a heavy heart ... that we had endorsed MISA that this was an 8-0 vote to select MISA. We all want MISA so badly."