Officials said the new Derby Middle School will open, as promised, Jan. 4.
A temporary boiler was installed outside the building about two weeks ago. It is designed as a back-up in case something were to happen with the regular boilers, officials said.
FIP Construction, Inc., the company in charge of the project, has a punch list of final items to complete, such as installing rails, a trophy case outside the gymnasium, installing a few ceiling tiles here and there, but the vast majority of work is done.
That’s music to the ears of Derby Middle School Principal Sally Bonina. Since July, she’s been wearing two hats. First, running Derby Middle School, which shares the same building as Derby High School.
Second — planning and supervising the complete transfer of a school from one place to another.
The Christmas recess started after a half-day of school Dec. 23. The old middle school has never been as empty.
“We finished cleaning the lockers out yesterday,” Bonina said Dec. 24. “I walked through the empty part of the school. There is such a feeling of closure.”
“It’s really happening,” School District Superintendent Stephen Tracy said.
Logistics
The school comes with new furnishings, such as chairs, desks and a 9,000-volume library.
On Monday, Dec. 27, teachers and faculty will be loading and moving boxes and personal items from the old building to the new building.
When students return Jan. 4, the seventh and eighth graders will report to the Middle/High School building as usual.
It’ll be a morning of little kid pomp and circumstance — with students officially leaving behind the old classrooms for the new building.
“They’ll have lunch there at 10 o’clock in the morning, which is usual there because we share the building,” Bonina said. “At 11:30 we’ll line up in the gymnasium by homerooms and we’ll walk across the street. We’ll cut a ribbon, we’ll go into the cafetorium (cafeteria that can double as a performing area because it has a stage) and there will be six huge sheet cakes,” she said.
“It’s all about the children that day,” Bonina said.
The Skinny On The School
The new middle school will have about 250 students Jan. 4. The number will grow to about 370 students next fall, when the school grows to include Derby sixth graders.
The new school building is about 78,000 square feet. Compare that to the 12 individual classrooms in the old middle school.
The school has 26 classrooms, which includes resource rooms. There are two computer labs, a music theory classroom, along with a band room and a chorus room.
No More Vagabond Instructors
Tracy said the new school will help alleviate overcrowding at Derby’s other schools.
There are teachers at the high school who are not assigned to a classroom because there are not enough classrooms, Tracy said. Those teachers put their materials on carts and travel from room to room.
The new school opens up space at the high school.
“Every teacher will have his or her home base,” Tracy said. “They can focus more on teaching and less on running around.”
In addition, with more space at the high school, Tracy said the district should be able to create an alternative education program for high school students who aren’t succeeding in a traditional setting.
Once the sixth grade students arrive in the fall, there will be more space at Derby’s Bradley and Irving schools.
That means Derby kids a pre-school program in Ansonia will be bought back into the district, Tracy said.
A district social worker housed in a renovated closet will have more space.
“Teachers will have rooms for meetings space and special education programs. Testing that now goes on in the hallways, jammed spaces — that is going to stop,” Tracy said. “So this isn’t just for the middle school. It’s for the whole city.”
Property Values?
The new, $28 million school, which voters approved by a slim margin (84 votes) in 2007.
Advocates for the project argued having seventh graders and high school seniors inside the same four walls just didn’t make sense — and was looked upon as a negative for any new family looking to move to the lower Valley.
“One of the primary motivations behind the referendum was to separate those two populations,” said Keith McLiverty, the city treasurer and chairman of the Derby Middle School Building Committee.
McLiverty said good schools equates to higher property values.
“That’s been proven time and time again. Look anywhere in the state,” he said.
Now Teach!
Tracy said he appreciated the public’s support, along with the work of the city’s Middle School Building Committee and city officials who helped make the project a reality.
“Ultimately we know the building is not going to teach the kids. We have to continue on hiring and developing the best teachers we can and focus on the relationships the teachers have with children,” Tracy said. “The building gives us a great platform. It takes away any excuse about not having the space or the equipment.”
“Now we have to focus on the most important thing — how these teachers will look these kids in the eye, connect with them and help them through that difficult period of adolescence,” Tracy said.
