Madison Officials Study Building a New School, Possibly Closing 1 or 3 Existing Schools Over Time

MADISON, CT - Madison Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice is doing what he can to make the comprehensive school facilities study as transparent as possible.

Six public forums have been held, a seventh is scheduled for next week, and now he's made a 17-minute Youtube video with the help of a Daniel Hand High School student Aidan Hughes explaining the whole process.

The seventh and final public forum will be held on March 30 at Polson Middle School. Building student led tours at 6:00-7:00 and the open forum at 7:00-8:30.

In the video, Scarice lays out in detail, near the 10 minute mark the three options on the table. One option includes keeping all six school buildings open.

The second option includes closing one elementary school, likely either Island Avenue or Ryerson schools, and remodeling Jeffrey School and the other elementary school that isn't closed.

But the option that is appealing to many in the community, Scarice said, is the idea of closing all three existing elementary schools, which are older facilities, and constructing a new Pre-K through grade 2 school.

Officials are examining possible areas where such a new school could be built and the costs, Scarice said.

Madison officials are examining its facilities and what to do with them because student enrollment has been declining for more than five years, and several existing schools including all three elementary schools need significant renovations.

Officials have been studying the facilities for more than a year.