South School window project moving forward

After several rounds of questioning by the town's funding bodies, the creation of a building committee and an overall price cut of $400,000, a costly window replacement project at New Canaan's South Elementary School is finally moving forward.

Originally budgeted at $3 million, the project will repair some windows and replace others, replace a failing glass block system and repair the building expansion joint.

The Board of Education voted Monday to approve a $2.6 million bonding request for the project after engineering, architectural and environmental consultants provided a more exact estimate for the overall cost of the project.

During budget deliberations this year, the Town Council agreed to bond the project, but it asked the Board of Education to form a building committee to oversee the renovations.

The recently formed committee has decided to split the project into two phases -- the first will take place this summer and the second in summer 2015.

Phase one includes removal of the glass block from the upper level of the school and abatement of the upper level.

Nancy Harris, the district's interim director of finance and operations, said the area will be "sealed up" until phase two, which includes more abatement and the replacement of the windows, starts next year.

"It will look a little bit odd for the school year, but that will give us a jump so that the window people can come in and insert the windows at that time," Harris said.

The committee also has determined that all upper windows, where a glass block currently exists, will be replaced with frosted glass, according to Harris. The school's interior courtyard windows will remain clear glass. At the bus loop, the brick sides flanking the bank of curved windows will be modified to make both sides equal in size.

Bill Silver, of Silver Petrucelli & Associates, noted that the upper windows have not changed since the 1950s, when the school was first built.

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South School window project moving forward