Groton - The School Facilities Initiative Task Force decided Thursday to pursue plans to build a new middle school on the Merritt property, with an entrance off Fort Hill Road and the building as close to Robert E. Fitch High School as possible.

The task force reviewed three options presented by educational consultants Milone & MacBroom and SLAM, an engineering, architecture and construction management firm.

Two of the options would have built the middle school adjacent to the high school or behind it, with a goal of creating one campus. It also would use the same entrance on Groton Long Point Road as the high school.

But to do that, the new building would have covered either the recently upgraded baseball field and tennis courts or the track/football field complex. It would have also led to choke points along the drive to the schools.

The third option, which the task force told the consultants to move forward with, would create an entrance to the middle school off Fort Hill Road, and locate the building with Ella T. Grasso Technical High School to the rear and St. Mary's Church to the left. The middle school area would include a synthetic turf field, a multipurpose practice field, a softball field and a baseball field. The task force still wants students and staff to be able to easily move between Fitch High School and the middle school.

"It's as centrally located as you're going to get," said consultant Mike Zuba of Milone & MacBroom, referring to the Merritt property.

The new middle school is part of a larger plan to deal with Groton's aging schools, create racial balance in the district and make it more competitive with other school districts. The new middle school would accommodate 938 students during the 2017-18 school year, when enrollment is expected to peak. It would be organized with four teaching teams at each grade level.

The Merritt property includes two parcels. The largest is 34 acres; a grant from the state Outdoor Recreation Fund Project bought the property from Mary S. Merritt in 1989, with the restriction that it be used for "conservation, recreation and open space purposes."

Zuba said he and Town Manager Mark Oefinger spoke to the state DEEP and were told there is a way to deal with the deed restriction and still build a school.

The town would have to provide land of equal value in return for open space; not necessarily in a 34-acre chunk, but pieces that would add up to the same value as the property being used.

The town council received a proposal about two months ago to build recreation fields on the same property.

Zuba said he doesn't want a competition for the site, and some recreation needs may be met by the school.

"Obviously, there's going to be some contention," he said. "We're trying to minimize that."

The consultants spoke Thursday only about how the site might be used, not the design of the building or cost.

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim