Committees take up Groton's proposed school construction plan
Groton — Superintendent Michael Graner made his case on Wednesday to the Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee for the proposed $184.5 million plan to build one new Groton middle school and convert the two existing middle schools into elementary schools.
It was the second committee to review the plan in as many days. The Representative Town Meeting Education Committee voted 5-1 Tuesday night to support moving the proposal forward.
Approval by Representative Town Meeting is crucial because the plan cannot go to the voters without it.
The committees will report their recommendations to the full Representative Town Meeting at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 10 in the Groton Senior Center. The meeting must approve sending the proposal to referendum for it to appear on the November ballot.
The construction plan would build a new middle school adjacent to Robert E. Fitch High School, renovate West Side and Cutler Middle schools and make them elementary schools, and close S.B. Butler, Pleasant Valley and Claude Chester elementary schools.
Groton taxpayers would pay $84 million of the $184 million total cost.
The district submitted the plan on June 29 to the state Department of Administrative Services for approval, Graner said.
Jim Loughlin, a member of the Representative Town Meeting Education Committee, voted to move it forward, though he’s not sure yet how he’d vote at the polls.
“There’s so much uncertainty there that, as a taxpayer, I don’t know what we’re up against,” he said. “And the superintendent pointed out either two or three things that could kill it, even if it goes to referendum and passes.”
Groton would need to qualify for 80 percent reimbursement from the state for one of the schools. The 80 percent grant is given to districts that have a racial imbalance and are required to correct it.
The state repeatedly has cited Groton for racial imbalance, most recently at Claude Chester Elementary School. But, due to student movement, the school fell back into balance this past fall, so Groton did not qualify for the grant last year.
Graner told the Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee that 75 percent of the kindergarten students registered last spring were minority students. He said he believes the town will qualify for the grant based on prospective enrollment this coming fall.
But Finance Committee member Richard J. Pasqualini Jr. said he believes spending money on new schools is the wrong approach. The town has tried to meet a state mandate for racial balance that can’t be met, he said.
“We should be suing the state. That’s where we should be spending our money,” he said.
Groton also would need the cooperation of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection before it could build on the Merritt property next to Fitch High School.
Groton purchased the Merritt property with financial help from the state to save for open space. Because of this, if Groton wants to build a school on the property instead, it must offer an alternative piece of land for open space in exchange.
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