Ledyard - The Town Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to scrap a $45 million renovation of Ledyard Middle School, a project they'd approved just two weeks ago.

In the weeks leading up to the project's approval by the council, several councilors voiced concerns about the steep price tag.

Councilor Sharon Wadecki said Wednesday night that the decision to scrap the project represents a collective sigh of relief among the entire council.

"Now we'll all sleep better," she said.

But Wadecki said the council will await a new, more affordable project, in order to address major security concerns at the middle school that pushed many councilors to give their "yes" vote two weeks ago.

Superintendent Mike Graner said he found out the cost was too high during an April 11 conversation with a state education department official about expediting the grant process. If the project had been approved, the state would have funded 62 percent of it.

During that conversation, Graner mentioned the project's preliminary cost and square footage, which he said the official determined would exceed the cost of a brand-new facility.

State Department of Education guidelines for school construction dictate that a renovate-as-new project must cost less than a new building.

Graner said a number of factors may have contributed to the mistake.

For one, the Board of Education did not receive the cost estimate until late in the game, pushing up against the town approval process ahead of the May referendum. The number was presented to the board at the end of February, he said, after architect Jim Lawler of Hartford-based C.J. Lawler Associates worked through last summer and fall on the blueprints.

Graner also said the subcontractors charged with estimating the gas, plumbing and electric costs may have ratcheted up the price by giving comfortable estimates to buffer for any inflation.

The final blueprints also included invading the structure of the original building in order to build interior walls where some classrooms lacked them - architecturally feasible, Graner said, but economically impractical.

Graner said Lawler was aware of the state's cost restrictions on a renovate-as-new project. Lawler was hired by the Board of Education's Facilities Committee last spring, though such building projects are usually the purview of the Town Council's Municipal Building Committee.

The Facilities Committee oversaw the process over the past year or so. Moving forward with any new plans for the middle school, Davis said the Municipal Building Committee will take charge this time.

Graner said Lawler has more than three decades of experience, and Graner visited three of the schools for which Lawler recently designed renovations. School officials at all three gave Lawler "really good reviews," Graner said.

Graner said Lawler still stands by his cost estimates.

Graner called it a "blessing" that the cost issue was pinpointed before the project went before voters, which it was slated to next month.

"The history of projects in Leydard show that you need to come forward with your best plan," he said. "And if it's rejected on an initial referendum, typically, it fails on subsequent referenda."

Even if voters had approved the project, he said, the state would have rejected it, sealing its fate for the next time around.

"People tend to not vote for a project twice," Graner said.

But Graner remained optimistic about the project's outlook, especially now that all options are on the table.

Originally, to the dismay of some town councilors, Ledyard Center School was slated to close as a means of offsetting the cost of the project. Graner said the school's closure could be reconsidered, and building a new Ledyard Center School is a possibility. At 63 years old, the school is the town's oldest and is continually plagued with expensive plumbing and electrical issues.

As for the middle school, all of the same needs stand: a new wing to accommodate the school district's sixth-graders, security upgrades, and addressing the building's open-cluster classroom setup, which precludes a lockdown procedure and leaves the majority of students vulnerable in the event of an intrusion.

Building an entirely new middle school will be an option. In Ledyard, the reimbursement rate for a new school would be 52 percent.

Graner said the Municipal Building Committee will decide whether to stick with the same architect. The Facilities Committee has invited the Municipal Building Committee to its next meeting, along with Lawler, on Monday.

Graner said a new plan could be ready for the November referendum.

a.isaacs@theday.com