By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The race to get two portable classrooms installed at Coleytown Elementary School has begun.

In a series of unanimous votes cast after midnight Tuesday morning, the Board of Education waived its bidding process to hire an architect and then to issue a request for proposals once those classroom designs are delivered.

Officials hope the design can be delivered by Feb. 11 so the bidding process can open and close in time for the school board to select a proposal at its Feb. 28 meeting.

If approved, the plan would next go to the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting for approval, allowing the portables to be ordered by April.

Even then, school district officials anticipate it could be October or November before the portables are available to relieve a space crunch at Coleytown, which shares its facilities with Stepping Stones Preschool. Enrollment is growing at both.

Because of a supply-chain issue, the board has been warned it could take 24 weeks for the portables to be delivered.

At its last meeting, board members asked how serious the space crunch at Coleytown is, and how it compares with the district’s other elementary schools.

“Creative” plans to address Coleytown space crunch

This week, the board was told that although all five of Westport’s elementary schools have to be flexible in using their facilities, the so-called squish factor is greatest at Coleytown.

Coleytown Principal Janna Sirowich said that her staff has devised a plan to cope until the portables are installed.

One of the two music rooms that would be moved into a portable will be housed in the school’s conference room. The principal’s office would become the conference room. And Sirowich will set up shop in a small space across from where her secretary sits.

The second music room would be located in a literacy coach office. The literary coach will share space with literacy interventionists. Instruments will be stored on the stage.

“We can do anything for four months,” Sirowich said. “We are very creative.”

The longer the delays, the greater the impact on curriculum

Board member Robert Harrington asked if the school could live with such accommodations for years, not months.

Assistant Supt. Michael Rizzo said anything beyond temporary arrangements would start to have an impact on instructional programs.

“That would impact curriculum delivery,” Sirowich said.

Elio Longo, the school district’s chief financial officer, said he expects Philip Cerrone of Cerrone Architects in Fairfield to do the design. Cerrone served as the architect on the Bedford Middle School modulars. The specific cost of the design work has not been determined.

Facing tight deadlines, Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said it makes sense to waive a board policy that requires three written quotations if the cost falls between $5,000 and $24,999.

Board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer prefaced approval of the bid waiver on condition that the drawings be delivered by Feb. 11.

“Let’s get this done,” Harrington said.

The portable classrooms themselves are expected to cost about $750,000 for installation and rental for four years.