Norwich — The committee designing a planned overhaul of city schools and the recently hired architectural firm for the project are ready to hear ideas from parents and the public before delving into the work.

The School Building Committee will host a combined in-person and online Zoom presentation and public forum at 6:30 Tuesday, with the in-person session in the community room at Kelly Middle School, 25 Mahan Drive, Norwich. Masks are required for all attendees. The forum is the first of at least three planned public presentations as the project progresses.

The building committee in May hired the firm Drummey Rosane Anderson Inc., also called DRA Architects, for $132,800 split over the previous and current fiscal years for “school construction strategic planning services,” according to city Comptroller Josh Pothier. The city signed a contract with the firm in June.

In September, representatives from the firm visited all 14 city school buildings and have been collecting information on the buildings’ conditions, size, layout, school enrollment, demographics and enrollment projections. The representatives reported to the School Building Committee that the buildings are in good condition for their age and daily use but have deficiencies, especially with handicapped accessibility, according to the committee’s Sept. 21 meeting.

DRA representatives told the building committee the primary goal of the first public forum is to listen to community concerns about the school renovation project. A second workshop later in the process will focus on specific options, and a third session is planned shortly before the architects present their final plan to the School Building Committee and Board of Education.

The firm and building committee started their work with the August 2019 report and recommendations of the School Facilities Review Committee. The plan called for renovating as new the John B. Stanton, John Moriarty and Uncas elementary schools and building a fourth new elementary school, all to house preschool through fifth grade students. The proposed new school building would accommodate 300 to 600 students, preferably in a Greeneville, Laurel Hill or East Side neighborhood.

The Teachers’ Memorial Middle School would be renovated as new for grades six through eight, as would the recently renovated Kelly Middle School.

Parts of that plan already are obsolete, however, as it called for closing and selling the city’s then-two preschool centers. But in spring, one of those centers, the former Deborah Tenant-Zinewicz School on Case Street was converted into the Norwich Transition Academy, a vocational training program for post-high school special education students.

The plan called for moving district administrative offices into the Samuel Huntington School, which would close as an elementary school. The Thomas Mahan Elementary School, located in a prime commercial area off Route 82, would be closed and listed for sale.

The central office building, the historic 1895 former John Mason School at the Norwichtown Green, also would be closed and listed for sale. The Hickory Street School, which formerly housed the Norwich Transition Academy, also would be listed for sale.

c.bessette@theday.com