Board reviews draft educational specifications for proposed consolidated Wallingford high school

Consultants hired by the Wallingford School District presented draft educational specifications for a proposed single, consolidated high school at the Dec. 16 board meeting, detailing program needs, space counts and reimbursement implications under state building rules.

Superintendent Belizzi introduced the consultants and said the board previously voted in January 2023 to pursue consolidation; she described the materials as "just a draft document" that will be posted and opened to public comment. Kemp Moorhart of the SLAM Collaborative and Kristen Fertak, also of SLAM, walked the board through department-by-department inventories — administration, special education, CTE pathways, science labs, library/media, visual and performing arts, and athletics — and a graphic-based “chiclet” layout that shows relative space sizes for each room type.

The consultants presented two program scenarios: one that includes an indoor natatorium (pool) and one that does not. They said the natatorium would add roughly 13,600 net square feet and would increase the district’s gross building area and the portion of cost that the district would be fully responsible for. "The natatorium is your indoor pool and all the support space for your pool," Kristen Fertak explained during the presentation.

Consultants explained how state school-construction reimbursement works and flagged an "eligibility factor" that reduces the district’s net reimbursement when a proposed building exceeds the state-allowable square footage. Chuck (Colliers) summarized the technical point: "It's not they're paying for x amount of square feet. They're paying on a percentage base," meaning that when the project area is larger than the state's allowable area, the district bears the incremental cost. The team showed an example eligibility factor (about 0.9409 in their model) and walked through net-to-gross conversions used to compare the program to state space standards.

They also identified items commonly treated as ineligible or limited-eligibility by the state reimbursement program: athletic-field lighting and artificial turf are typically ineligible; fixed auditorium seating, some spectator seating, outdoor athletic facilities and certain natatorium elements often receive limited (roughly 50%) reimbursement. The team recommended using base bids with alternates to isolate incremental, nonreimbursable upgrades such as synthetic turf.

Consultants said the draft ed spec includes detailed inventories (for example, 38 standard classrooms, seminar rooms, CTE shops and specialized labs) and a proposed schedule that would allow the board roughly a month to review and submit comments for revision. They also recommended targeting a state grant application window in June of '26 and emphasized that community outreach will be important for any successful funding request.

Public commenters during the meeting emphasized both support for consolidation and concerns about outreach and travel time. Joe Corso told the board a combined high school could "provide a broader and more diverse array of academic programs" and criticized what he called misinformation on social media. Other residents urged broader community surveying and asked the district to post key comparative slides and conduct traffic studies that consider bus ride times for students on the west side of town.

Superintendent Belizzi said the draft ed specs and slide deck would be posted to the district website by the next business day and that staff would collect questions and comments via email or a Google form; the board plans to revisit public feedback at a January meeting.

The presentation was framed as a draft and a starting point for public input; no formal vote on the educational specifications took place at the Dec. 16 meeting.