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Committee recommends closeout of three Danbury school construction projects
Summary
The Sites and Facilities Committee voted to recommend that the Board of Education certify and close three previously completed construction projects — Danbury High School upgrades, Ellsworth Avenue School addition and the Osborne Annex administrative renovation — and forward paperwork to the state for final closeout.
At a meeting of the Danbury Board of Education Sites and Facilities Committee, members recommended that the board accept three previously completed school construction projects as complete and authorize district staff to sign and forward state closeout paperwork.
The projects named for closeout were the Danbury High School upgrades completed in 2018; the Ellsworth Avenue School addition (the school portion) completed in 2022; and the Osborne Annex administrative/registration renovation also completed in 2022. Committee members were told the retainage for the Ellsworth projects was released to contractors in 2024 and that staff would send the certification forms to the state after the board’s formal vote.
Why it matters: state-funded construction projects often stay in a two-year retainage/inspection window after substantial completion. Formal closeout is the final administrative step to release remaining state reimbursement and to remove the projects from active status.
The committee member who read the motion said, “I make a motion that the sites and facilities committee recommends to the board of education to accept the following school…construction projects as complete and authorize the superintendent of schools to certify and execute the DAS form,” language read aloud from the document posted to the meeting chat. Committee member Al made the motion; Luisa seconded. Two members voiced “Aye,” and the chair declared the motion passed. The motion will be presented to the full Board of Education for final signoff and transmission to the state.
Project summaries provided to the committee identified major scopes and funding sources: the Danbury High School work, funded through a district bond program, included roof replacement, emergency generators, cafeteria expansion, the G Building and a black-box theater, new fire alarms and sprinklers and other site improvements; staff described the total cost of that project at about $49,000,000. The Ellsworth school addition work converted a Board of Education registration building into pre-K and kindergarten classrooms, added a playground and a connecting corridor; the administrative portion (Osborne Annex) created registration and administrative office space on the renovated annex’s second floor. The administrative piece was described in committee comments as an approximately $300,000 section of the overall work.
Next steps: the committee recommendation will appear on the full Board of Education agenda. If the board votes to approve, district staff said they would file the closeout certification forms with the state agency that administers school construction reimbursements.
