Manchester Repurposed Schools Task Force To Meet This Month

MANCHESTER, CT - A public meeting of the Manchester Repurposed Schools Task Force is scheduled for this month.

The meeting is on tap for Monday, April 18, at 6:30 p.m. at at the Nathan Hale School building, 160 Spruce Street. This meeting is open to the public and will include a public comment session.

The committee has launched launching a neighborhood and town-wide community outreach initiative aimed at gathering citizen input on how four local elementary school buildings will be "repurposed" for future use.

The Manchester Board of Directors has charged the committee with developing a plan for the future of Nathan Hale, Washington, Martin and Robertson schools.

Nathan Hale, decommissioned in 2012, has been vacant the longest and will be the first school targeted for repurposing, town officials said.

Manchester voters have approved between $10 million and $12 million for the repurposing initiative as part of the $93 million SMARTR2 referendum of June 2019.

A resolution that chartered the Repurposed Schools Committee charges the committee to "engage the community with public input opportunities, as appropriate, to ensure participation and inclusion in the decision making process."

The directors have endorsed the committee's plan to spend $250,000 on a professional community outreach consultant to work closely with the 22-member committee to solicit input from town residents with targeted outreach to residents from the neighborhoods of each repurposed school building.