According to RTM members David Cullen and Brenda Kupchick, the Fairfield Woods Middle School Building Committee voted Thursday night to go forward with a proposal which includes additional classrooms, special education rooms, upgrades to the cafeteria and a new auditorium. The proposal is estimated to cost approximately $23 million. Details will be finalized at the next meeting FWMS Building Commitee meeting on January 21st at FWMS, 7pm.
So do you think this will get approved by the Board of Selectman? Please feel free to comment below.
This is good news! I still feel that the appropriate renovations/additions should have been done when Fairfield Woods was renovated back in the early ’90s, but am glad that this is going forward now! It would be very welcoming for Woods to FINALLY have an auditorium, just like Tomlinson and Ludlowe MS….I went to Woods back in the day and recall participating in concerts etc in the gym…..
@ Jennifer74 – Yes this is long overdue. Unfortunately, in Fairfield, there is a mentality of “one and done” when it comes to the school system. Once a project is finished, people feel we are done. The school system needs the continual capital improvements to avoid situations where we need to spend tens of millions to upgrade a school.
Tell me about it! I also read somewhere that the ROOF needs to be redone at Fairfield Warde…..WHOA!!! The roof and other renovations were done when it was Fairfield High, in my freshman year there! Anyways, the ‘one and done’ deal doesn’t work….and the proof is in the pudding when it also comes to Riverfield, and esp. Stratfield! No one wants another McKinley School mold fiasco…..
And yes, who knows how the Board of Selectmen will vote on the Fairfield Woods project….I am very worried believe it or not.
To be sure, buildings– be they schools, firehouses, town halls, our own homes etc. etc.– are not static structures but must be both maintained (roofs, for exampel) and renovated and/or expanded as is the case with FWMS.
The cost is the cost. The Building Committee is a highly regarded group of individuals and I trust they have done their due diligence.
I will specifically state that a true auditorium is long overdue at that school and I have heard of no so-called “frills” anywhere in the plans. I would also suggest that anyone who thinks the FWMS community should not have that facility included should tour Tomlinson or better yet, Ludlow Middle first.
I would further suggest– nay, urge–that whether you support or oppose this project or any part of it, that NOW is the time to make your voice heard by your elected officials.
David Cullen
RTM District 7
I couldn’t be happier about the Building Committee’s vote for plan D including the Auditorium. I have to say that I was a little nervous, as a couple of the members expressed their concerns about presenting their recommendation to the BOS, possibly offering the option of plan D sans the Auditorium, saying that if it doesn’t get approved now, it will still be on the slate to get done in a few years. Come on, people….do you or do you not live in this town? Track records clearly show that’s not the way things happen. Plans get placed on the back burner and eventually forgotten about, blatantly skipped over or applied with a butterfly bandage rather than the stitches they really need. That’s why we’re in the situation we are with our facilities, i.e. Stratfield School costing the town $11M+, the sickly condition of many of our other schools, and this FWMS renovation/upgrade with a price tag of over $20M. The argument is that the town does not want a tax increase. Political motivation wants to keep the people happy. No one, including myself, wants to pay higher taxes but eventually we will be hit with a tax increase – and a significantly larger one – to make up for not implimenting one this year and with no means to support it. If the town would make the commitment to maintain the buildings as they need maintaining then we would be consistently hit with higher price tags to fix correctly what should have been done in the first place. I believe the presentation to the BOS is on or around the 27th; we need to show our support of the Building Committee’s recommendation and let our voices be heard.