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Committee authorizes feasibility study for project labor agreement; members urge preserving J.H. Gaudet history as new schools are named
Summary
The Middletown School Committee voted to authorize a feasibility study into a project labor agreement for the new middle–high school construction and recommended the Town Council name the new buildings Middletown Middle School and Middletown High School; members requested inventorying existing named rooms to preserve local history.
The Middletown School Committee voted to authorize the town administrator to seek services to conduct a feasibility study for a project labor agreement (PLA) applicable to the district’s new middle and high school construction project.
Chair Greg Hewitt said the committee had reviewed a large document and asked staff to summarize the proposal. Superintendent Billy Niemeyer and other members described the study as a standard practice on large construction projects intended to secure labor availability and reduce schedule disruption if a PLA is later negotiated. A committee member said the town council had already signed similar agreements in other projects and expressed support for advancing the feasibility work.
Separately, the committee voted to recommend that the Middletown Town Council name the new buildings Middletown Middle School and Middletown High School. Several members pressed for preserving the history of existing schools during the naming process: one member specifically raised the J.H. Gaudet School, noting it has stood for decades and urging that its history be memorialized within the new facilities, for example by naming a gymnasium or other rooms.
Chair Hewitt and other members asked the building committee and administration to catalog current room and facility namings so that those memorials can be considered as the new schools are designed and named. The committee noted that final naming authority rests with the Town Council under the town’s policy, and the school committee’s action was a recommendation to the council.
The PLA feasibility vote was accompanied by discussion of timelines and labor guarantees; supporters said a PLA can help ensure contractor workforce availability and adherence to construction schedules, while no detailed contract terms were presented at the meeting. The committee did not vote on a PLA itself, only on seeking the feasibility study.
The building committee and administration will follow up with an inventory of named rooms and spaces for inclusion in discussions with the town council and the architect.
