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The Representative Town Meeting unanimously approved an $11.6 million project to renovate Ludlowe and a $14.5 million project to expand Riverfield at its monthly meeting Monday.
The work at Fairfield Ludlowe will add two science labs and four all-purpose classrooms to the school, expand its cafeteria and renovate the teacher and senior lounges. The expansion is designed to help account for rising enrollment, which is expected to grow to more than 1,700 over the next few years.
The renovation will also replace Ludlowe’s PCB-contaminated windows and upgrade the 22-year-old roof to prevent leaks. The roof repairs were moved up in the town’s schedule because of the incident this January, when a portion of the roof opened during a wind storm.
The Riverfield project will add more than 16,000 square feet to the school in classrooms and other spaces, in part to remove the portable classrooms currently on the campus. It would also “heavily renovate” another 15,530 square feet of existing space to add more classroom space.
The plan also includes new security upgrades recommended by the Fairfield Police and an air-conditioning system.
The cost of the Riverfield project was cut significantly from the idea originally proposed by architects earlier this year, which would have been more than $17 million. The Riverfield Building Committee brought the cost down by asking to renovate the current annex instead of replacing it with all brand-new space.
“I believe that the committee’s done a tremendous job with this project. It’s been a long time coming for Riverfield and for the community,” said RTM member Nick Mirabile. “I think that they did a nice job reining this project in.”
Construction on both projects is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2014.
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