The building has been closed for two school years due to mold
By Curt Peterson
The Windsor Central Modified Unified Union School District (WCUSD) Board emerged from a short executive session Monday, Jan. 13, to unanimously vote to complete recommended work necessary to reopen The Prosper Valley School in Pomfret in September.
The cost of required work will approximate $200,000, and funding will be provided through borrowing and private donations, said board member Jim Haff.
The school has been closed and students have been bussed to Woodstock Elementary School for classes since August 2018 because of moisture and non-toxic mold present in the building.
The district has spent approximately $100,000 in testing, cleaning, and drainage remediation work, but progress seemed stalled since last fall.
Pomfret representative Patti Kuzmickas had made increasingly frequent and sometimes passionate pleas to the board and various board committees, citing growing frustration among Pomfret voters.
Most recently, at the Jan. 10 WCUSD finance committee meeting, Kuzmickas told her colleagues it was time for the district to “be honest” about the future of the school. At that same meeting, Bob Coates, the other Pomfret rep and co-chair of the finance committee, agreed that re-opening the school should be a priority.
Kuzmickas wrote to the Mountain Times on Tuesday after the vote and said, “I am extremely
happy [about the Board’s] commitment to move forward on the next stage of work necessary for the reopening of [TPVS]. I am grateful to my fellow board members and to the community that has been patient and persistent in this effort.”
Bob Coates said in an email, “The school board continues to recognize the value of the TPVS campus and has invested over $150,000 in trying to solve the long term moisture problem. My understanding is, that this does not yet mean we know when the school will reopen or for what purpose. It does mean the district is continuing to support TPVS.”
Haff said remaining investments would include deep cleaning, demolition of infected cabinetry, a specialized HVAC system with dehumidifying capabilities, and possible repairs to a water line.
No decision has been made about how the reopened school will be used. Superintendent Mary Beth Banios and Haff said various alternatives have been discussed.
After Monday’s meeting, Haff told yhe Mountain Times further delay might have led to future complications, including legal issues, if the school remained closed or if the district returned the school to the town.
Most of the WCUSD meeting focused on the FY2021 proposed budget, which would cost taxpayers $17,096,833 if accepted in March by a majority of voters in the seven participating towns.
Finance and Operations Manager Mike Concessi told the board this budget is 8.18% higher than FY2020, an increase of $1.23 million – 75% of which is driven by contractual obligations and increased healthcare benefits costs, both mandated by the state and beyond district control.
This increase will have an education tax rate impact of $.051, Haff said, to which each town’s local Common Level of Assessment (CLA) will be applied. The CLA is meant to adjust assessed real estate values to reflect actual market values within a town. Some towns will see tax rate increases, and others decreases, as affected by their CLA rates.
The FY2021 budget proposal is designed to keep per student spending at $18,733 — $33 below the state-mandated cap, Haff said.
Concessi said he believes nothing in the 2019 books (deficit or surplus) will force a change to the budget.
* In the print version of this story the headline read “Board votes to reopen Pomfret school,” we realized this was slightly misleading as it is yet to be determined when the building will open and for what purpose. We have changed the headline here to “Board votes to rehab Pomfret school.”
