School enrollment increased 31 percent over last year in at least one school.  As staff and principals run out of options for further redefinition of space, Mayor Mark Boughton said these problems will be potentially alleviated by the purchase of a new building and redistricting.

Morris Street Principal Bill Santarsiero said, “Our enrollment jumped from 311 last year to 411 this year.  But we get the job done, we meet every challenge, we make the best of it.”

 Morris Street has an award winning history of making the best of a bad situation. However, photos show that even an excellent staff cannot overcome an inability to create space where there is none. “We have five students taking math assessment in the music storage,” Santarsiero added.

Many storage areas at Morris Street are now doubling for other purposes. The gym storage now houses an office, stacks of copy paper, a bin of balls, hula hoops, and more. The custodian storage is now a counselor's office. A full time social worker, psychologist and small group instruction area share a supply closet. The music room, with stepped floors that make it impossible to take two steps without descending, now houses Special Ed.  Art supplies are stacked on two tables behind a stage curtain. (See attached photos.)

 At another school, Mill Ridge Primary, another 80 students joined the school this year. Mill Ridge added a class of  third graders last year, and this year added an additional half day kindergarten, two more first grades and an additional third grade.

 Dr. Mary Cronin, principal of Mill Ridge Primary, agreed that the space is inadequate, but said, “I make it comfortable. You get creative and use space that God did not even know He created." Pointing at the ceiling, Cronin said, "The next phase will be up.  Maybe we can grow a garden up there.  Grow some tomatoes on the roof.”

 Mill Ridge Primary was built in the 1970s. The building consists of three round pods made up of pie shaped classrooms that open into a round, center, common area.

 According to Cronin, one of the challenges in redesigning the spaces is that most of the classrooms were not designed to have dividing walls.  Certain rooms used for kindergarteners still retain the sense of open space, divided only by low barriers such as coat cubbies and temporary panels.  An advantage is that the walls can be moved to accommodate space needs.

 However, in another pod where walls have been built, at least one spacious classroom has had to be divided into two smaller classrooms.

State tests, those required for all students, are now held in the school's center community space. Snacks are cut up on folding tables in the hallways. The Art Cart is stacked with supplies and the music room is now a desk in the open space, with several storage cabinets placed around the pod’s common area.

 Many of the extreme space problems are a result of this year's unexpected increase in enrollment. A 2007 report on Space Utilization Analysis for the Danbury Public Schools, also know as The Savin Report, predicted these problems would occur.

 The 2007 report stated, “Unless something is done to address those schools that have severe space problems, the situation will only worsen as elementary school enrollment is projected to increase by 400 students over the next five years."

"These students will not be able to attend the overcrowded schools unless the district accepts certain educational compromises like surrendering art, music, and computer labs for classroom spaces, or housing instructional services for students in improperly ventilated closets and storage rooms.”

 The report also noted that unless expansion includes additional new classrooms, full day kindergarten will never take place without sacrificing programming.  Much of the classroom expansion since 2007 has been done at the loss of programming. According to school administrators, no brand new classrooms have been added since that time.

 This year, Shelter Rock Elementary was forced to move a small number of students to Great Plain Elementary.  Shelter Rock also lost it's art room after losing their music room in previous years.   The Morris Street School and Mill Ridge Primary are an example  of what  could ultimately happen to all of the schools in Danbury if actions are not taken.

 The 2007 report further stated that the schools verged on using supply rooms and closet “spaces that lack heating and appropriate air circulation.” That has come to pass.

 Mill Ridge and Morris Street schools were never designed to function as they do now. Danbury 's school administrators are looking at pocket redistricting as a short term solution over the next two to three years, with the expectation that a new building will be open and available to students at the end of that time.

 At Wednesday night's meeting of the Board of Education, Superintendent Sal Pascarella announced upcoming plans for redistricting that will be revealed to parents towards the end of October. Meetings will be held at each of the effected schools, and parents will have the opportunity to voice their opinions both at meetings at the schools and subsequent BOE meetings.

 Deputy Superintendent Bill Glass, Ed.D., said, “Shelter Rock lost their art room this year, and it was pretty dramatic, but we have been doing that at other schools already. Space is really at a premium. We are looking at redistricting with the new report and the work from the 2020 task force. Its kind of a moving target. We are just managing this on a day to day basis.”

 Dr. Pascarella said there would not be any redistricting of the middle schools at this time. He also said, “This is probably a two-to-three year plan, and the kids will remain at these schools. We want to try to keep families together. If a fifth grader doesn't want to move out, they can stay. At some point we are going to need another building.”

 According to Mayor Mark Boughton, many actions are already in place to ease the overcrowded situation of all of the schools. "We just hired a consultant who worked for the Savin engineers and we are going to take the recommendations of Dr. Sal Pascarella and Dr. Glass, and the Savin Report. The consultant will write up a draft based on discussions on programming and space needs," the mayor said.

 “The challenge is how can we get the most amount of space with the best programming at the best price,” the mayor continued. “I think we can do it. We hired the guy who did the Savin Report, and I feel good about how that is going to end.”

 Hoping to dispel any rumors, Boughton explained the plan at this point. “The plan is to turn Mill Ridge Intermediate School into an intra-district magnet school for Danbury kids. This will allow us to peel numbers from kindergarten through fifth grade from all of the schools that are experiencing overcrowding. The building will hold 550 kids, so we will have plenty of room, everyone will get their art rooms back. We will also have to do target redistricting as well.”

 “We met with the state and they are interested in helping us finance the purchase and the renovation of a building,” Boughton said. “The building we are looking at is close to 100,000 sq feet. It will house the STEM Academy from Rogers Park, become a sixth, seventh and eighth grade academy for Academy for the International Studies Magnet school. There will be two separate academies in the building, separated by a floor."

"We cannot purchase the building without the voters support through a referendum, but this will be tens of millions dollars cheaper than buying a new middle school. It's a nice big building and I know we can make this fly.”

 “The building is in the Ridgebury area,” said Vice Chairman of the Board of Education Richard Janelli, who also said, “I commend the staff for the ingenuity and dedication to work within those parameters.”

 “We haven't had any of these principals or staff members come and complain to us,” Janelli said. “They just embraced the situation. They went ahead, used their ingenuity, and took care of it. They do more with less, and they did an excellent job. It's a nice indication of the community, staff parents working together in uncomfortable situation until things turn around,” Janelli said.

 “We want to make sure we are being transparent,” Pascarella said at the meeting. “We are not holding anything back, we are placing all of our warts out there and making sure we just do the best we can. That's what we are trying to do.”

 “We are designing what we think is a pretty good plan,” Boughton said. “We are going to need the public's support.”