By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The Board of Education has unanimously approved a set of preliminary educational specifications for a new Long Lots Elementary School, directing the project’s building committee to plan for a school housing between 600 and 687 students.

The document, approved Monday, will help guide the committee as a newly hired architect and construction management firm develop a feasibility plan for the project.

The committee has yet to decide whether to renovate the existing school on Hyde Lane, build an entirely new school or some combination of the two.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said the ed specs normally would not be finalized until the project reached the design phase, but that the committee requested the guidelines now.

Architects Svigals+Partners of New Haven and Newfield Construction Management Services of Hartford have three months to complete the feasibility study.

On Monday, Jay Keenan, chairman of the Long Lots Building Committee, and committee member Donald O’Day told the school board the study would not only help determine the best option for the project, but where to locate the building on its campus and what short-term fixes are required for the existing Long Lots facility.

Some consideration is being given to keeping the existing school, even if a new one is built, to serve as a temporary swing space facility as other schools in town undergo renovations.

Many see that as a logistical challenge.

Long Lots already has the largest enrollment among the town’s five elementary schools. Adding a second school population to the campus, even temporarily, would cost millions and tax the campus, the board was told.

“We’d be in a better position if [preserving the existing building] was not on the table,” Keenan told the board.

“The density is crazy”

Edie Anderson, a Hyde Lane resident, told the board that the idea of using the property to house two schools, plus a preschool, is terrifying.

The plan currently calls for the property to support not only Long Lots but a seven-classroom Stepping Stones Preschool, which has 98 students.

“The density is crazy in my mind. I don’t hear anyone addressing that … If the other building doesn’t go away,” Anderson said.

She asked officials to consider the impact of the project, in terms of density and traffic, to what she called a nice, quiet neighborhood.

“It’s really a lot. Too much to ask one neighborhood to absorb,” Anderson said.

Scarice called it a complex problem.

Plans envision nearly 84,000 square feet of school space

The ed specs document calls for Long Lots and Stepping Stones combined to encompass 83,850 square feet.

The school would have 27 classrooms, a science lab, two world language classrooms and generous common spaces, including a large cafeteria, which board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer said she was happy to see. The board saw a first draft of the specifications last September.

The plan also calls for three primary entrances to the building, parking lots, playing fields and designated bus and parent drop-off areas.

Once the project gets to the design phase, Scarice said, there are ways to make what will be a large school not feel so big. He urged the board to have a seat at the table when those decisions are made. 

Officials still hope to apply for state reimbursement for construction costs a year from now.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.