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South School Windows Project On Time, Budget

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The first phase of the closely watched $2.75 million windows project at South School—removing part of the original 1955 glass block, long porous and out-of-code, with caulk that has PCBs—has been completed on time and budget, district officials say. The work wrapped up Aug. 8, leaving the gym, “café-torium” and some inner courtyard spaces such as the library for the second phase (to be completed next summer), according to Nancy Harris, interim secretary of the South School Building Committee and interim director of finance and operations for New Canaan Public Schools. “At this point in time, I have to tell you that from a personal perspective, as you look at where the glass block was, it’s covered in plywood, covered by Tyvek, covered by a rubber membrane and boards so that it’s weather-tight, it actually looks neater and less jarring than the original glass block, and now you can see the comparison between the gymnasium and the Tyvek covered space so it was really a success,” Harris said at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. The glass block system and original windows at the school need to be replaced, and building expansion joints and caulking and trim in the windows repaired, Shelton-based engineering and environmental consulting firm Tighe & Bond and SLAM Construction Services of Glastonbury have found.

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Group Forms to Oversee Saxe Auditorium Renovation

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New Canaan this week took a big step toward the widely anticipated renovation of Saxe Middle School’s aging auditorium, with the creation of a volunteer panel to oversee the project. The Saxe Auditorium Building Committee includes elected and district officials as well as private citizens. The town approved $175,000 for project designs in the current fiscal year, with $2 million earmarked for the actual work in fiscal year 2016, budget documents show. Part of the original 1957 building, the Saxe auditorium received a “poor” rating in an August 2013 facilities survey. Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi described the auditorium as both an instructional and performance space “and it hasn’t been updated, maintained or renovated in an awfully long time.”

“We’ve got a situation where the seats are broken and the space itself is no longer serving the needs of the school or the community,” Luizzi told NewCanaanite.com.

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Remediation Work on South School Windows to Start This Summer

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Workers this summer will remove parts of the original 1955 glass block from portions of South School—now porous and out-of-code, with caulk that has PCBs—as part of a widely anticipated $2.75 million windows project at the elementary school. The environmental remediation work on the glass—which in its first phase will include all areas except for the front of the school, gym and “café-torium”—will start this summer when South is vacant, members of a building committee dedicated to the project decided at their most recent meeting. “That gives us a leg up to have all the upper window area installed at the same time in the summer of 2015 where all the remediation on all of the lower windows is taking place,” Nancy Harris, interim secretary of the South School Building Committee and interim director of finance and operations for New Canaan Public Schools told NewCanaanite.com during an interview after the April 3 meeting, held at district offices downtown. “So it cuts down on the risk of not completing the project before school starts for the 2015-16 school year.”

The South School windows project has been on the radar for parents and district and town officials for several months. The glass block system and original windows at the school need to be replaced, and building expansion joints and caulking and trim in the windows repaired, Shelton-based engineering and environmental consulting firm Tighe & Bond and SLAM Construction Services of Glastonbury have found.