Groton Town Council to consider school construction project Tuesday
Groton – The Town Council is expected on Tuesday to send the proposed school construction plan to a referendum in November.
The town is seeking $141 million from the state to build one new middle school and two new elementary schools to deal with aging buildings and address a persistent racial imbalance problem that has forced Groton to repeatedly uproot students.
If the state agrees, the construction projects would cost Groton taxpayers $55 million, with the state picking up about 72 percent of the total cost of $195.6 million.
“I personally have done a whole 180 on the whole school building project,” said Karen Morton, a newly-elected Republican town councilor who formerly opposed building new schools. “I mean, if we can pull that off and the state approves that, that is a no-brainer.”
Groton would be able to build three new schools for what it would cost to refurbish the old ones, she said.
The council will consider whether to authorize drafting a bond ordinance - the first step in the referendum process - during its committee of the whole meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Town Hall Annex. Councilors, including its four newly-elected members, heard details of the plan last week from the School Facilities Initiative Task Force.
“It just went extremely well,” Superintendent Michael Graner said of last week's meeting. Councilors asked questions but ultimately “expressed enthusiastic support,” he said.
School and town officials met in February with state representatives and state Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Melody A. Currey to discuss Groton’s building situation. The commissioner and state staff discussed the town’s longtime struggle to maintain racial balance and recommended it request a specific dollar amount for construction.
If the state money doesn’t come through given its financial crisis, Morton said she would not support the project. But if it does, the town should seize the opportunity, she said.
Town councilors are also dealing with a potential 8.3 percent tax rate increase as part of the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year because of declining revenue. Morton said the town must put “everything” on the table for potential cuts to reach a near zero tax increase, or it’ll cost Groton the school construction project.
“My goal is going to be to get the budget down as close to zero as possible,” she said. “Because I think that assuming that they approve the funding for the school, that has to be our priority this year. This is a one-shot deal. This offer is not going to be the on the table again.”
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