Ridgefield School Officials Narrow Master Plan Options: What Grows? What Goes…?

Ridgefield school planners refined facility scenarios: Expanding preschool? Cutting back on air conditioning? It's all on the table...

By Rich Kirby, Patch Staff

Jul 21, 2026 4:37 pm EDT | Updated Jul 21, 2026 6:26 pm EDT

RIDGEFIELD, CT — The Ridgefield Board of Education's Strategic Planning Committee directed its consultants to narrow the district's long-term facilities master plan to a smaller number of scenarios after spending nearly 80 minutes reviewing maintenance priorities, preschool expansion options and potential elementary school consolidation. No votes were taken during the July 20 meeting, which centered on refining alternatives before they are presented to the full Board of Education this fall.

Consultants from MP Planning and Studio JAED presented updated analyses of several districtwide capital planning scenarios that range from maintaining existing schools to consolidating elementary schools and constructing a new Veterans Park Elementary School. The committee also reviewed a new "mission critical" maintenance framework that focuses on preserving building envelopes, mechanical systems and site safety rather than addressing every item identified in the district's Facility Condition Assessment.

Philip Conte, CEO of StudioJaed, said the mission-critical approach prioritizes roofs, windows, masonry, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems, along with site improvements such as sidewalks and curbing.

"If these were our facilities, our recommendation is you focus on these three categories," Conte told committee members, adding that interior finishes and other nonessential improvements could be addressed later through smaller capital projects.

The consultants estimated that addressing all priority one through three facility needs across the district would cost roughly $112 million to $131 million, depending on whether air conditioning is included. A mission-critical approach would reduce the estimated investment to approximately $100 million to $124 million. Those figures exclude lower-priority work identified in the facility assessment.

Committee members spent considerable time discussing whether districtwide air conditioning should remain a planning priority.

Board member Robert Martire questioned why eliminating air conditioning was presented as an option after previous facility studies had recommended installing HVAC improvements.

Conte said the consultants were not recommending against air conditioning but instead wanted to provide the committee with a full range of options as it evaluates costs.

"If you were to ask my opinion," Conte said, "I would be pushing at a minimum that category of mission critical with air conditioning."

Superintendent Susie Da Silva noted that adding air conditioning increases projected costs by roughly $20 million but said the option also reflects evolving state priorities regarding HVAC systems and indoor air quality.

Much of the discussion focused on expanding preschool programming, which Da Silva described as one of the district's most pressing long-term facility needs.

The consultants said reclaiming the Cadence Academy space adjacent to Barlow Mountain Elementary School would provide the most practical path for expanding the district's integrated preschool program. Under the planning assumptions presented Monday, the space could accommodate eight preschool classrooms without requiring major renovations because it is already configured for early childhood education.

Da Silva said the district's immediate concern is not implementing universal preschool but expanding programming for students with disabilities while increasing opportunities for typically developing peer students who participate in integrated classrooms.

"We have to solve the preschool problem in short order," Da Silva said.

MP Planning Group's Michael Zuba said reclaiming Cadence is incorporated into planning scenarios beginning with Scenario A2. If the town does not make the property available, he said, the district would likely need to construct dedicated preschool space elsewhere, increasing project costs and reducing flexibility for addressing other program needs.

"If Cadence was off the table, we would have to add additional scenarios," Zuba said, including expanded preschool space at Veterans Park Elementary School.

Committee Chair Scott Sigel said the Board of Education should begin discussions with town officials because use of the Cadence property is outside the board's authority.

He said the district needs to understand whether the property could become available before narrowing its preferred master plan scenarios.

Board member Kathryn Graf agreed that discussions with town leaders should begin sooner rather than later because several planning scenarios depend on access to the site.

The committee also reviewed updated enrollment modeling prepared by MP Planning. The analysis projects that consolidating elementary schools under scenarios that reduce the number of buildings could lower the district's number of elementary classroom sections by roughly six to seven over the first five years while maintaining current class-size guidelines. Consultants cautioned that the projections are intended only as planning tools and should not be interpreted as future staffing or budget decisions.

Martire said he continues to believe the committee needs a stronger explanation for why the district should pursue significant capital investments.

He urged consultants and administrators to develop a clearer business case, including long-term operating costs, financial impacts and responses to questions residents are likely to raise as the planning process advances.

"I still think we're missing the answer to why are we doing this," Martire said.

Da Silva responded that the master planning effort began with three primary objectives: documenting the condition of district facilities, addressing growing preschool space needs and examining long-term enrollment and space challenges across the district.

She said predicting total long-term operating costs for individual scenarios would require assumptions about future transportation costs, staffing, enrollment, labor contracts and other variables that cannot yet be forecast with confidence.

Committee members also discussed the historical significance of the Veterans Park Elementary School campus, which is included in several redevelopment scenarios. Consultant Pat Gallagher from MP Planning said the conceptual locations for proposed new construction lie outside the boundaries of the local historic district but acknowledged that any future project would require careful architectural design because of the school's prominent location near the town center.

By the end of the meeting, committee members directed the consultants to continue refining the alternatives, with the goal of reducing the number of scenarios under consideration before presenting recommendations to the full Board of Education and the public later this year. Sigel also said the district will begin parallel discussions with town officials regarding the future of the Cadence property because of its importance to the district's preschool expansion plans.