Schools
Family Resource Center Rolls Along
The school board granted the superintendent permission to negotiate a contract with Munger Construction for the interior of the new FRC building.
Progress was made toward finishing the new Family Resource Center building currently under construction behind Jerome Harrison School.
The Board of Education discussed at its regular monthly meeting Thursday the need for more funding for the building's interior work. Passed at the meeting was a motion allowing Superintendent of Schools Scott Schoonmaker to contract with Munger Construction of Branford, acknowledging them as the contractor for the interior work.
"$200,000 have been allocated to date, to the town, which has been used now, and we're going to find out where we're at with that amount of money and how we're going to spread it as far as we can before tapping into that next round of monies," Schoonmaker said. "We're estimating at about $73,000 for the interior work and to complete the project."
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The total cost to the project will be determined, among other things, by whether the school system will have to pay for heating when the time comes to begin interior construction. Should workers require a heat source, the price of equipment and propane would factor into the total price.
With the concrete foundation poured, construction of the new building's exterior is well underway. Steel construction began on Thursday. Interior construction will tentatively begin in late December or early January. The time period is subject to change, however, based on unpredictable weather conditions facing the region.
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"We're hoping we avoid any storms and we'll have it up and at least boxed in before we start the interior work," Schoonmaker said.
The North Branford Family Resource Center was one of the first three of its kind to open in Connecticut, in 1989, according to the school system's website. Its primary goal is to provide early education, school-aged child-care, and family support services to residents and their children.
Without a central location since this year's redistricting, the center has been operating out of both Totoket Valley and Jerome Harrison Schools. Completion of the FRC will provide a headquarters for the growing program.
