The Board of Education has been closely following the Saxe Building Committee’s (SBC) work throughout their process of analyzing the educational space needs at Saxe, recommending changes to meet those needs and designing the improvements deemed critical. The Board of Education fully supports the SBC’s recommended project to renovate the Saxe Auditorium and visual performing arts/music area and to expand the current building to add a net of 12 new classrooms.
Why Saxe Needs More Space
Built in 1957, Saxe Middle School was last renovated from 1997 to 1999 to accommodate 1200 students. Since this time (15-plus years), Saxe’s enrollment has increased. Current enrollment is at 1,327 students, up from the 1,292 students enrolled at this time last year. The latest projections anticipate that enrollment at Saxe will steadily increase over the next few years, peaking in 2024 at 1,376 students, and remaining stable at around 1,350 afterwards. Through the years, the Saxe administration and staff have been diligently making use of every possible space in the building to educate the students.
Today, Saxe is bulging at the seams. Enrollment pressures have required teaching many academic and special education courses in undersized spaces. For example, an eighth grade science class is currently housed in a 585-square-foot classroom, well below the recommended state guidelines. The proposed new addition will right-size this science room to a 1,000-square-foot room. The space pressures have taken a further toll this year with the loss of a computer lab and the world language lab, both of which had to be converted into general classrooms to accommodate this year’s enrollment increase. Without the project, in 2017 the two remaining computer labs are slated for conversion into general classrooms as well.
It is important to note that factors besides anticipated enrollment increases are also contributing to the need for this project. Space pressures at Saxe have been exacerbated by state mandates and program changes since 1997 as well. For example, two classrooms are required to run reading and learning center programs, both of which are required, and two others are needed for the successful STEM and Mandarin programs.
The lack of space has also been felt in the music, visual, and performing arts areas. As part of the music and arts curriculum, every student in the middle school participates either in choir, band, orchestra or music technology. Through the years, these rooms have become overcrowded. For example, today, the sixth grade orchestra, made up of 56 students, learns in a 900-square-foot room (16 square feet per student). For an orchestra this size, the recommended space standard is an 1800-square-foot room, twice the size of our current space (32 square feet per student). The same issues exist in many other classrooms as well.
Throughout the process, a few questions arose about the capacity of other areas of the building. A review of Saxe’s library, gyms and cafeteria shows that these spaces are adequately sized to accommodate the current enrollment and the anticipated future enrollment at Saxe. Additionally, the Saxe Building Committee has commissioned a study of the Saxe cafeteria to look at ways to increase serving efficiency. Results are forthcoming and, although not part of the building project, will be considered by administration and staff upon their arrival.
The Saxe Building Committee also reviewed the possibility of transferring a grade to another building to alleviate space pressures. The New Canaan High School is adequately sized to handle the current high school enrollment and, although it has some flexibility, it does not have the capacity to house an entire additional grade. Additionally, moving fifth grade back to the elementary schools would require classroom additions at each of the three elementary schools, which would take longer, could require redistricting, and would be much more expensive than the proposed project. Educationally, we have found many benefits having the fifth grade at Saxe thanks to the team teaching model and the educational opportunities available at the middle school, and believe our current structure, with Saxe housing grades 5 through 8, is the best for our students and our community.
The students at Saxe need adequate space to learn. The building capacity has been exceeded and it is time to add much needed space to the building. The Saxe Building Committee has thoroughly studied this project for over a year, and it is the right decision for our students, our parents, and our entire community.
Fixing the Problem
The Saxe Building Committee has recommended renovating the auditorium, music, visual performing areas and expanding the building to add a net of 12 new classrooms.
The proposed project design features a two-story addition to the northwest corner of Saxe. This is the last available space to build on the Saxe campus without disturbing the fields or parking lots. The architects have designed the addition to fit seamlessly into the current facility making it very appealing.
The project is designed as one integrated project; the designed features are tied together. The auditorium cannot function to its fullest potential without adding storage space for risers, sets, musical stands and chairs. Adding critical storage space is part of renovating the music, visual, and performing arts sections. These areas can only be renovated as designed if the building is expanded to house the art rooms in the new addition providing space to add storage and expand the choir, band and orchestra rooms in the music area. Trying to divide the project into separate parts to be completed at different times would be ill advised due to increased costs from construction cost escalation and loss of efficiencies. Only renovating the auditorium would perpetuate the crowded conditions at Saxe, hindering the educational experience for the students who are there now and those soon to follow.
If approved, construction on the project would begin the summer of 2016 and be completed by the fall of 2017. This schedule allows much of the construction to be done over two summers, when students are not in school. The SBC is ready to have the town bodies vote on approving funds for the project to proceed. The state has been notified regarding the project and filings have been started to receive state reimbursement if town funding for the project is approved.
The project is estimated to have a net cost of $16.2 million. The total estimated cost is $18.6 million (this estimate includes more contingencies than the prior estimate) with an expected state reimbursement of $2.4 million. Forty percent of the project is renovations and 60 percent is new construction.
As a bonded capital project, the annual debt for the project would be $1.06 million, which includes principal and interest for 20 years at 3 percent. This translates to an average of $148 per year for each tax-paying unit (based on 7,122 taxable accounts).
In order to stay on track to have construction begin in the summer of 2016, funds need to be approved as soon as possible. A delay would mean losing the summer to begin construction, which would cause more educational disruption during the school year and construction cost escalation. O & G, the hired construction managers for the project, estimate construction costs to escalate 5 percent each year.
Saxe is already overcrowded; more classrooms are needed today and for the coming years. The BOE urges the Board of Finance and Town Council to vote to fund the recommended project sooner rather than later. A delay will cost the town and the students more in the end.
[Signed] Board of Education Members Sangeeta Appel, Alison Bedula, Dionna Carlson, Gene Goodman, Scott Gress, Hazel Hobbs, Penny Rashin, Jennifer Richardson and Sheri West
New Canaan has always put it’s schools first, which I wholeheartedly agree with. The Saxe building is a top priority now. If we are uncomfortable with this outlay, then put the Locust lot and Waveny on the back burner. Enough of the talk, get the building built.