By John Schwing

WESTPORT — Plans to install two modular classrooms at Coleytown Elementary School this fall have been dealt a blow after the Zoning Board Appeals denied the application on grounds that security for the project was inadequate.

One ZBA member invoked the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School as a reason for rejecting the proposal, which was unanimously denied at the panel’s meeting last week.

The Board of Education had applied to the ZBA for a lot coverage variance to add two renovated modular classrooms for Coleytown Elementary at 65 Easton Road.

Classrooms sought for growing enrollment

ZBA members indicated they understand school officials’ effort to win quick approval for the project because of growing enrollment at the school, particularly the Stepping Stones preschool program. The plan also will need approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission.

After listening to school officials outline the plan to install the two modular classrooms, connected to the main Coleytown building by a walkway covered by a canopy, ZBA members raised a series of concerns about what they felt was a lack of detailed information about security to protect students. The meeting took place March 22 via Zoom.

The plan calls for two modular classrooms to be installed on the site of an older modular, with the facilities expected to be in place four years from the start of the 2022-23 school year. 

The classrooms, most recently used by Fairfield public schools, were built in 2016-17 and renovated in 2020, the ZBA was told. 

They would not be used as classrooms for regular instruction, but for “transient” student groups, such as music classes and other special programs.

Building footprints on the Coleytown property already exceed coverage limits, largely because of wetlands, so a variance is needed to increase coverage for the modulars from 33.7 to 33.8 percent, or about 950 square feet, according to Phil Cerrone, the project architect.

But after the application was presented by Elio Longo, the school district’s chief financial officer, and Ted Hunyadi, the facilities director, ZBA members raised questions.

Concerns about deterioration turn to security

Chairman Jim Ezzes wanted to make sure that use of Coleytown’s modular classrooms would be limited to four years, as promised by school officials. He noted that several years ago Kings Highway Elementary School modular units began to deteriorate, allowing mold to develop and causing illness.

Concerns raised by ZBA member Josh Newman, however, focused the panel’s discussion on security issues.

Newman, the father of two children who attend Coleytown, said the plan as presented caused him to worry that “kids could be sitting ducks” in a tragic scenario akin to the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012.

Despite assurances from school officials that metal doors, additional fencing, cameras and other security measures are planned in conjunction with the project, Newman and other ZBA members remained unconvinced.

Each of the five board members said that, in unannounced visits to the Coleytown campus to view the modulars’ site, they were able park and walk around the area unchallenged.

When Ezzes initially suggested approving the application, with a series of conditions on security and use of the classrooms, Newman said he felt that fell short.

Newman: ‘Conditions’ on approval not enough

In addition to worrying about the safety of his children, Newman said he knows parents of children killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which claimed the lives of 20 students and six adults.

The “conditions and recommendations” on security are “not enough,” Newman said, in urging that the application be rejected.

“I need to know that everything I have done … as a member of this board …” will ensure security for the proposed modular classrooms, he added.

“Let [school officials] come back with a well-thought-out plan, from scratch, that addresses all those concerns,” Newman said.

“Do a better job.”

By the end of their work session, all of his ZBA colleagues agreed, unanimously denying the Board of Education application.

The panel also agreed that, to accommodate school officials’ plan to get the portable classrooms in place by the start of the next academic year, they would consider a revised application at a special meeting as early as next month.