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Wallingford officials get timeline for consolidated high school ed specs; draft due in December
Summary
Consultant Colliers told the Wallingford School District operations committee that a draft educational specification for a proposed consolidated high school is due early December 2024, with finalization targeted in February 2025; site size, enrollment and grant timing were discussed.
Scott Pelham of Colliers told the Wallingford School District operations committee on Oct. 21 that consultants expect a draft educational specification for a single consolidated high school to be delivered to the Board of Education by early December 2024, with a final version possible by February 2025.
Pelham said the district is planning the new school for roughly 1,600 students and estimated its size at about 280,000–300,000 square feet, though the final program will determine exact needs. He said the Connecticut recommendation for site size is 20 acres plus 1 acre per 1,000 students and that the district is therefore looking at roughly 36 usable acres for athletic fields and building footprint, though he added that smaller or vertical designs can be used if contiguous acreage is limited.
Pelham outlined the state grant timetable the district would face should it move forward: an application may be filed by June 30 of a given year, projects are placed on the state priority list in December, and the legislature considers funding the following year. "You can file it at any time but it has to be in by June 30 of any specific year," Pelham said, describing the pathway the district would use to get onto the state's priority list.
Board members pressed staff about the use of the word "referendum" in project documents; several asked that public-facing materials instead refer to "funding approval" or "preapproval" until a local funding path is confirmed. Colliers recommended early outreach to local legislators to discuss reimbursement rates and advised the district to complete the ed spec and site due diligence before advancing a formal funding request.
The district said department-level meetings have occurred every other Tuesday to assemble programming and spatial needs and that community outreach will follow once the draft ed spec and candidate sites are identified. Next steps for the committee are to review the draft when it is delivered in December and to coordinate transportation, site and legislative outreach as part of project planning.
