Norwich — A restructuring plan for city schools calls for consolidating into four elementary school buildings reorganized by grade levels and declaring several remaining buildings as “surplus,” either to be sold or reused for other city purposes — such as school administrative offices, a teen center or child care centers.

The School Facilities Review Committee last week accepted an inch-thick report with the recommended restructuring plan written by the consultant team of JCJ Architecture, LEARN and O&G Industries.

The plan rejects a proposal to consolidate all elementary schools onto one large campus — a plan favored by committee Chairman Dennis Slopak — saying the option of renovating four existing school buildings offers more advantages.

The cost estimates for the two options appear similar: the single consolidated elementary campus is projected to cost $141.2 million, with the city's cost after state reimbursement at $68.2 million, and the four-building option $144.4 million, with the city's cost $57.6 million after state reimbursement.

But the city doesn't currently own a site large enough to house the single campus arrangement, and the cost estimate doesn't include land acquisition costs, said school Superintendent Abby Dolliver, also a facilities committee member.

Slopak, however, still supports the single campus concept and cast the lone dissenting vote on the committee motion to accept the report.

The full report is available for review at the school central office, 90 Town St., and will be posted soon on both the city website, www.norwichct.org, and the school website, www.norwichpublicschools.org.

The report recommends restructuring the elementary schools into two schools with kindergarten through second grade, two schools with grades three to six and retaining the recently renovated Kelly Middle School for grades seven and eight.

The report did not address the city's two existing preschools.

The report recommends “renovating as new” the Thomas Mahan, John M. Moriarty, Teachers Memorial and John B. Stanton schools and expanding each school building to house additional students and possibly additional common facilities, such as the gymnasium and cafeteria.

If city officials deem the Mahan School located off Route 82 at Interstate 395, Exit 11, is more valuable for economic development, the nearby Uncas School could be retained and renovated instead, the report said.

State reimbursement levels are higher for “renovate as new” projects than for new school construction, school officials said.

Lead architect Bruce Kellogg told the committee the report does not specifically address what to do with the central office staff, which is now spread out among several sites in city schools.

He suggested the vacated Samuel Huntington School be retained and renovated to serve as a consolidated central school office and perhaps double as a community center for Norwich.

The remaining vacated school buildings could be turned over to the city for possible sale or reuse.

“Without significant alteration these facilities could be repurposed as daycare centers/nursery schools or as a teen center,” the report executive summary stated. “However, in most of the facilities, investors would have to address building systems which have generally come to the end of their useful lives.”

Originally, the School Facilities Review Committee had planned to seek Norwich voter approval for a school restructuring plan during the November 2016 election.

But in June, the committee voted to postpone the process by one year to give more time for public input and to study the restructuring options.

Slopak said the committee now hopes to complete four initial “next steps” by October, starting with a meeting with the commissioner of the state Department of Administrative Services to seek support for the proposed plan and to gauge the state reimbursement possibilities.

After the DAS meeting, the committee plans to meet with city officials to discuss economic development possibilities for the surplus buildings and to invite school staff to review the plan and offer extensive input, Slopak said.

The committee was criticized in June by teachers' union members for moving forward with the restructuring plan without consulting the teachers.

Slopak said that was never the committee's intent and he already has extended an invitation to school unions to discuss the plan with the committee.

The committee hopes to put in a request for state reimbursement bonding in time for the spring 2017 legislative session.

That would be followed by a year of public meetings to discuss the plan and possibly make changes and to market the plan as the best way to consolidate city schools to save money in the long run.

Restructuring by grade levels also could ease chronic transiency problems city schools have experienced in recent years.

School officials estimate some elementary schools experience 30 percent turnover of students each year, with dozens of new students moving into a particular school and about the same number moving out of that school during the course of the year.

In-city school moves would be eliminated if all students of a certain grade level attended the same school.

c.bessette@theday.com