Enfield School Board Decides to Give Fermi Building Away

At a highly-emotional meeting that lasted more than three hours, the Enfield Board of Education voted Tuesday night to turn the soon-to-be-vacated Enrico Fermi High School building over to the town.

The controversial decision was made by a 6-3 vote, with board chairman Tom Sirard, vice chairman Mike Ludwick and members Ray Peabody, Walter Kruzel, Lori Unghire and Tim Neville voting in favor of letting the Town Council take control of the building.

Vinny Grady, Tina LeBlanc and Stacy Thurston were the board members who were in favor of keeping the building, or at least gathering more information before making a decision.

The motion to pass control of the building came with several stipulations: that the council remediate the athletic fields at John F. Kennedy Middle School as soon as possible, that they deal with the inadequate portable classrooms at JFK, and that some of the Fermi building be maintained for educational purposes.

"The conditions seem workable but keep the building in flux pending a referendum being drafted, approved by the Town Council, and then approved ultimately by the voters," Mayor Scott Kaupin said in a written message to Enfield Patch. "At our last Governance Meeting we did discuss multiple referendum options based on the various decisions the BOE could make. Now that the BOE has conditionally decided to turn over Fermi to the town, we now need to formulate a process to identify the needs at JFK, the costs associated with those needs, plus a time line to bring a referendum to the voters to ultimately approve the funds needed."

Many residents had spoken in favor of moving the middle school to the Fermi building once it is vacated, which will happen at the close of this school year. The consolidated Enfield High School will welcome all students beginning in Sept. 2016.

Others, including some board members, urged the panel to postpone its vote until a professional feasibility study could be done on the conversion of Fermi to a middle school.

Despite the apparent overwhelming feeling that more data should be collected and a decision should not be rushed, the board did just that, angering numerous residents who walked out as soon as the vote was finalized.

Some of the few who remained took advantage of the second round of public comments to lambaste the board for their decision. A pair of middle school students also spoke, nearly in tears, about their disappointment with the vote.