Board of Education
Board of Ed Hears Proposal for New ‘North Elementary School’
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Consultants this week laid out a proposal to add a fourth elementary school in New Canaan. On Monday, at the Board of Education’s regularly scheduled meeting, representatives from MP Planning Group and SLAM Collaborative walked officials through a three-phase plan to create a “North School” off of Smith Ridge Road/Route 123 to address capacity concerns while renovating four other schools in town. MP Planning Principal Pat Gallagher said there’s been “a longstanding desire within the community to move to a K-5 and 6-8 grade configuration at the schools, so we looked at the best options to move towards this goal.”
“Also, there are capacity concerns at our schools moving forward, and we want to create smaller learning communities by shrinking the student population at the elementary and middle schools,” he said during the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School and via YouTube. Gallagher detailed how, while schools should strive for 90 to 95% occupancy of their planning capacity, East School is operating at nearly 100% and West School is nearing that mark. “Buildings at or close to 100% of their capacity experience operational impacts,” he said.