Greenwich News Archive 2003 - 2008: Hamilton Avenue School Saga
Greenwich
planning for the school.
March 2004: Preliminary plans call for renovating or rebuilding at a
cost of $22-$24 million, with a fall 2007 re-opening.
May 2004: Board of Education approves plan to relocate students to a
temporary modular facility to be built at Western Middle School.
June 2004: Representative Town Meeting postpones approval of a school
building committee because "educational specifications" have not been
finalized.
August 2004: Building firm recommends rebuilding, instead of
renovating, the school; Superintendent of Schools Larry Leverett backs
the plan.
September 2004: RTM approves the building committee, chaired by Frank
Mazza, a retired engineer who has served on building committees for
Cos Cob, Glenville and Greenwich High schools.
October 2004: School board approves funds for school reconstruction
and purchase of a pre-fabricated modular facility. Relocation to the
modular facility scheduled for December 2005.
November 2004: School officials postpone students' move to the modular
building until February, citing unforeseen construction problems and
bad weather.
Dec. 3, 2004: Closing ceremony held at the old Hamilton Avenue School.
January 2005: School officials postpone students' move to the modular
building to March, citing unexpected site conditions and a lengthy
permitting process. Tempe, Ariz.-based PinnacleOne is selected as
project manager.
March 2005: School officials postpone students' move to the modular
building to April, citing additional unforeseen construction problems.
Costs expected to exceed the $3 million budget by $390,000.
April 26, 2005: Students' first day of class at the modular building.
Mid-August 2005: With plumbing, wires and drywall stripped, crews
begin knocking down the old Chickahominy school.
September 2005: Bidding begins on a contract to build a 92-space
parking garage at the school.
October 2005: Building committee awards an estimated $1.6 million
contract to Bethel-based Worth Construction, the lowest bidder, to
build garage.
Nov. 6, 2005: Worth is ousted from $46 million highway contract by New
York comptroller, who cites alleged mob ties. The firm has also been
implicated in a bribery probe involving the former Waterbury mayor.
Worth denies the allegations.
March 2006: Town attorney begins investigation of Worth; later gives
building committee legal clearance to continue working with the
general contractor, according to Mazza.
April 24, 2006: Building committee awards an estimated $22 million
contract to Worth, the lowest bidder among three, to gut and rebuild
the school.
May 2006: Construction work begins at the school, with "substantial
completion" scheduled for July 2007.
September 2006: Hamilton Avenue School is cited for achieving the
third highest increase in fourth-grade scores on Connecticut Mastery
Test over the last two years.
December 2006: School board member Michael Bodson says the project has
fallen about a month behind schedule, but can get back on track.
April 4, 2007: Hamilton Avenue School is honored as one of four
"Connecticut Vanguard Schools" by the state Department of Education
for significant gains on the CMT; school gets $20,000 grant.
Mid-April 2007: Building committee says chances are dwindling that the
project will make its July completion deadline, citing a cold spell
and unexpected slowdowns by Worth, among other reasons.
April 23-27, 2007: Officials postpone the school's re-opening from
late August 2007 to the middle of the 2007-08 school year because of
delays. Sternberg assigns Tony Byrne, director of facilities, to
attend job-site meetings. Mazza orders project manager to increases
its presence at the job site, fulfilling a request by Worth.
May 21-25, 2007: Trade union members boycott work at the school to
protest Worth's alleged use nonunion sheet metal workers.
June 11, 2007: RTM approves building committee's request for an
additional $545,000 in interim funding.
June 24, 2007: School officials set a new timeline: Reconstruction to
be finished by mid-October; teachers to relocate in December; school
to re-open in January.
Late July 2007: Construction officials push back projected completion
date to November, citing delays in steel shipments that forced workers
to install temporary weatherproofing, which later broke during storms,
causing water damage.
Sept. 11, 2007: Worth officials say a new round of delays will push
the project's completion date to late December. School is now expected
to re-open sometime in the spring 2008.
Mid-September 2007: Building committee and Worth begin closed-door
meetings to discuss finishing work without lawsuits.
Mid-October 2007: Fire inspectors uncover minor fire code-related
issues at the modular building. Parents concerned about crowding, but
school officials say occupancy is below class-size and safety
guidelines.
Late October 2007: Project manager says inspection problems,
substandard work and design flaws have placed project in jeopardy of
missing December deadline; March completion said to be more likely
with summer move expected to follow.
Early November 2007: Worth begins refusing to pay for temporary
heating at the school. Committee says the firm is contractually
obligated to pay. Progress slows on interior work.
Nov. 13, 2007: Outgoing First Selectman Jim Lash recommends hiring San
Francisco-based firm URS Corporation to mediate the dispute and speed
up work.
Nov. 27, 2007: Building committee says project will be mostly complete
by May, instead of March, depending on when the building will be
heated.
Dec. 4, 2007: After talks between URS and Worth break down, building
committee votes to pay to heat the building during the winter months.
Dec. 12, 2007: Committee requests $550,000 from the town in additional
funding for the project.
Dec. 29, 2007: Heat is turned back on at the school, more than a week
after the Dec. 18 target date because officials had not received the
certification from a duct work manufacturer. Work resumes in several
areas of the school.
Jan. 14, 2008: RTM approves building committee's request for an
additional $550,000 in interim funding intended to help spur the
project to completion.
Jan. 22, 2008: Project manager says the project won't be done by May,
unless on-the-job manpower increases above the average of 50 workers.
Feb. 29, 2008: Mold is discovered at the modular building during an
investigation into a roof leak in a fifth-grade classroom.
March 3-7, 2008: The modular building is closed for a week. District
officials say they'll re-assign students to six other schools -- Old
Greenwich, North Street, Glenville, Parkway, Cos Cob and Western
Middle -- for the rest of the school year.
Early March 2008: Short-term tests taken at the modular building
shortly after the relocation reveal no air quality issues related to
mold, but one longer-acting test shows a higher level of nontoxic mold
spores, according to a consultant hired by the school board.
Mid-March 2008: A complaint filed by a parent with the U.S. Department
of Education accuses district officials of racial discrimination
against Hamilton Avenue students, 60 percent of whom are minorities.
Federal officials say the complaint warrants investigation.
March 2008: Connecticut Mastery Test administered to Hamilton Avenue
School students, who have resumed classes at six other schools.
April 24, 2008: The school board votes to remediate the modular
building so it can be used in the fall. The remediation project is
expected to take four months and cost up to $1 million. The second
option would have been to use Western Greenwich Civic Center.
May 12, 2008: RTM approves $972,000 in funding to clean up mold at the
modular building.
June 9, 2008: Despite grumbling about the project being over budget
and behind schedule, the RTM approves a $200,000 interim
appropriation, requested by the building committee in May, to complete
work at the school.
June 11, 2008: High levels of mold found in a wall, outside a modular
building and on a piece of carpeting show that students and staff were
exposed to the spores, according to test results by a certified
industrial hygienist hired by a parent group.
Mid-June 2008: The air in two modular classrooms shows active mold
growth, according to a follow-up report released by school officials,
though they say it's unclear whether the air had always been moldy or
only became that way since the March relocation.
Late June 2008: Construction and design flaws that went undetected
when the structures were built three years ago caused mold growth at
the modular building, not lack of maintenance or oversight by
administrators, says a consultant.
Early July 2008: Mold remediation under way at the modular building.
Late July 2008: School board developing contingency plans for
relocating Hamilton Avenue and Glenville students in case the
Chickahominy school isn't ready to accommodate students by the start
of the 2008-09 school year.
July 29, 2008: Building committee votes to request $320,000 in
additional town funding in hopes of expediting completion of remaining
work necessary for an Aug. 27 re-opening. The figure later jumps to
$500,000 because of new work orders.
July 29, 2008: School board approves delaying the start of the school
year for Hamilton Avenue by a week to give crews more time to finish
work for needed for a temporary occupancy certificate. If inspectors
grant the certificate by Aug. 8, students will be allowed to return to
the school for class on Sept. 8. If not, they have to return to the
modular building, while Glenville School students are re-assigned to
four other schools, as demolition begins on their school.
Aug. 1, 2008: Worth President Joe Pontoriero says there is no chance
the school will be approved by Aug. 8. With inspectors calling for new
building modifications, an Aug. 15 completion is more realistic, he
says.
Aug. 8, 2008: With no temporary occupancy certificate, school board
proceeds with contingency plan to send Hamilton Avenue students to the
modular building and disperse Glenville students to Parkway, Julian
Curtiss, Cos Cob and Western Middle schools.
Aug. 15, 2008: The Board of Estimate and Taxation tentatively agrees
to set aside $500,000 to help pay for remaining work, but with the
condition that the building committee keeps closer tabs for the BET on
how the money is being spent.
Late-August 2008: Test results show Hamilton Avenue students' scores
plummeting on the 2008 CMT. School officials cite severe disruptions
caused by the relocation of students in March.
Aug. 27, 2008: An environmental consultant hired by the school board
assures parents at a meeting that the modular building has been
remediated and the classrooms are safe to inhabit.
Late August 2008: School board members say they are considering
relocating students to the new school in mid-October if the TCO
arrives by mid-September.
Sept. 15, 2008: RTM approves building committee's interim funding
request, which has risen from $320,000 in July, to $500,000 in August,
to $700,000 in September. Committee members cite a slew of new
expenses needed to meet inspection standards.
Sept. 18, 2008: Federal investigators dismiss allegations made by a
parent in March that the district is racially discriminating against
students. In the report, officials say while significant disparities
are evident, there is "insufficient evidence" to show resources were
being denied on the bases of race or national origin.
Sept. 30, 2008: Parents submit a petition with more than 500
signatures to the school's building committee opposing an idea floated
by several committee members to remove Worth from the project by
revoking the bond that guarantees its contract, citing concerns about
delaying the school's re-opening for months.
Oct. 7, 2008: BET Chairman Steve Walko calls for all groups involved
in the reconstruction to begin meeting every week to resolve disputes
and push forward with finishing the project.
Nov. 26, 2008: BOE Chairwoman Nancy Weissler says a TCO must arrive by
Dec. 5 if students are to safely return to classes at the school after
holiday breaks end Jan. 5. Otherwise, she said, the school board may
not schedule a move until spring 2009 to avoid interfering with CMT
prep.
Dec. 3, 2008: School officials say they are moving forward with plans
to re-open Hamilton Avenue in early January, on the assumption that
the building committee will have secured the TCO on Dec. 19.
Dec. 19, 2008: The building committee fails to secure a TCO after the
manufacturer of the school's boiler system refuses to approve last-
minute safety modifications to its equipment, citing liability
concerns.
Dec. 22, 2008: Sternberg calls off earlier plans to move staff and
equipment into the new school over holiday break, citing the eleventh-
hour impasse with the boiler manufacturer.
Jan. 27, 2009: Building committee says it will have to seek an
additional $200,000 from the town to pay for unanticipated facilities
work and compensate the project manager, architect and contractor for
additional time spent on the job.
Jan. 30, 2009: Town building officials grant a TCO for the school,
after certifying that the installation of replacement ventilation
pipes to the boiler system, as well as a patch job on an interior
wall, complies with fire safety standards. Though the school is now
safe to occupy, school officials say they will wait until spring to
relocate.
Feb. 3, 2009: After re-examining the decision, school officials say
they will allow staff to begin moving into the school over February
break, clearing the way for students to resume classes when winter
recess ends in mid February.
Feb. 4, 2009: A spot in the kitchen ceiling rouses suspicions of mold
growth in the new building. Inspectors confirm the presence of mold
near the water stain, but say the impact on the environmental quality
is negligible, according to a letter dated Feb. 5.
Feb. 17, 2009: Students and staff return to their rebuilt schoolhouse
for their first day of classes there in more than three years.