It was a long time coming, but the groundbreaking for the $32.5 million project to turn Chatfield School into Chatfield-LoPresti School took place Thursday with gold-colored shovels and a cheering audience.
The school has been in the planning stages for years.
“This is the most technologically advanced building in the history of the Town of Seymour, with geothermal heating/cooling system, radiant heating and coolers, and a dedicated outdoor air system,” said Donald W. Smith Jr., co-chairman of the Chatfield-LoPresti School Building Committee.
Smith and several other officials spoke to the audience of about 60 people before students Stephanie Ferrara of LoPresti and Isabelle Bunosso of Chatfield dug in with the shovels on a pile of loose soil just outside the school’s front door. The two students will be among the first to graduate the new school.
It represented, symbolically, the actual site preparation work that has been going on about a week.
The work will be completed in September 2012, if it remains on schedule and on budget. The cost is being covered with 62 percent reimbursement from the state and the rest bonded out at a low rate.
“It will accommodate around 700 students, that will allow a little room for growth,” said First Selectman Paul Roy.
The new facility means LoPresti School will eventually be turned by the Board of Education back to the town, for some other use.
“It’s time to say goodbye to an old friend and say hello to a new friend, Chatfield-LoPresti School,” Roy said.
Superintendent of Schools MaryAnne Mascolo was glad to see the culmination of years of planning.
“This ensures our children will have a state-of-the-art facility in which to learn and grow,” she told the crowd.
