Mill Hill School Getting 441-Capacity Renovation After RTM Vote

FAIRFIELD, CT — It's official. Mill Hill Elementary School will be renovated for a 441-student capacity after town representatives approved about $22 million to fund the project, voicing objections before the vote to the student capacity the plan was designed to accommodate.

Representatives repeatedly said they would prefer to vote on the 504-student capacity renovation that school officials have long sought. However, the town's Board of Finance and Board of Selectman had already voted to support the 441-capacity option, so that's the plan that was presented Monday at the Representative Town Meeting.

"I think 504 is the best fiscally responsible decision to make," said Rep. Dru Mercer Georgiadis, D-District 9. "... Unfortunately, that decision has not been given to us tonight."

Mill Hill currently has 18 classrooms in the school building and five portable classrooms, school board Chairman Christine Vitale has said. The 441-capacity plan will eliminate portables and allow for 21 general education classrooms at Mill Hill plus dedicated space for special education, expanding the school by nearly 15,000 square feet, town documents state. The 504-capacity option included 24 classrooms.

"The students of Mill Hill deserve a facility that doesn't involve portable classrooms," said Rep. Sharon Pistilli, D-District 3, who added she felt the decision not to fund the 504-capacity plan was short-sighted, but that she would reluctantly support the 441-capacity proposal.

The 441-capacity renovation is expected to cost $21.5 million, Vitale has said, while the 504-capacity option was projected to require about $22.7 million. After state reimbursement, the difference in cost between the two plans was estimated to be just over $900,000.

Rep. Bill Gerber, D-District 2, discussed the 441-student capacity option in the context of the school district's racial imbalance plan. A district contractor previously advised that the only way to address racial imbalance at McKinley Elementary School while maintaining neighborhood schools in Fairfield was to build Mill Hill and Holland Hill elementary schools to a 504-student capacity, Gerber said.

"We are now unable to achieve a 504 school because that was voted down by the Board of Selectmen," he said.

All town representatives present Monday voted in favor of appropriating about $22 million for the 441-capacity renovation and authorizing issuing bonds to finance the work.

Mill Hill will remain open throughout the renovation and officials hope to see the project completed by 2022, Vitale has said. The renovation has been in the school district's long-range facilities plans for several years.