Stonington -- The completion date for the renovation and expansion of Deans Mill and West Vine Street schools has been pushed back to mid-March or April of 2019, as contractors deal with the need to encapsulate PCB contamination in each school.

The $67 million project had originally been slated to be completed in September and then was pushed back to after Christmas break in January 2019. The PCB work has now delayed that a few more months.

The new classroom wings of each school are still on track to be ready for students and teachers to move in to when school resumes on Sept. 4. At that point work will continue on renovating the original sections of each school, such as the cafeterias.

Because the cafeterias will be closed for much of the school year, the school district needs to provide hot meals for a certain number of days each year in order to qualify for federal free and reduced lunch funding.

Last week, the Board of Finance unanimously approved a bid waiver that will allow the K-12 School Building Committee to spend $12,281 to rent a truck from Enterprise Rental to deliver hot meals from the middle school cafeteria to the two elementary schools.

"Are we sure it's just not cheaper to order pizza for the kids," quipped finance board member Lynn Young before the vote.

Board of Finance Chairwoman June Strunk, who is a member of the K-12 School Building Committee, said at the meeting that crews are working 10 hours a day and Saturdays to ensure the needed work is done in time for the start of school.

She added the project remains within budget with a total of $2.7 million left in the contingency fund for any further unexpected expenses.  

The April completion means that the schools will be ready to accept fifth-grade students in the fall of 2019 when the two middle schools will be consolidated at Mystic Middle School. Fifth-grade students currently attend the middle schools.