Weston's three governing boards are working toward a townwide vote on a new middle school on November 2, 2027, with students moving in by the fall of 2031. Before that vote, the draft schedule has the town asking the state legislature for a higher reimbursement rate.
The Board of Education has already recommended building new. "The school, the Board of Education, has sent to us their recommendation to build a new middle school," First Selectwoman Samantha Nestor told a joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Education and Board of Finance on September 24.
No board voted on the project that night, and none voted on the schedule. Nestor instead asked the room a question.
"Is there anyone in this group who is opposed to moving forward with the recommendation," she asked, "that has been brought to us from the Board of Education and starting this process and getting feedback from the community?" She added: "This is not a marriage. This is not speak now or forever hold your peace."
Why a new building
Board of Education Chair Deborah Low laid out the case for replacing the existing middle school. "We have an older building built in 1960, expanded in 1970," she said. "Science labs are now out of date." The heating and cooling system, she said, is "at the end of its useful life."
At the same meeting, a representative of Colliers, the consulting firm advising the boards on the project, described the cost under discussion for a new middle school as $120 million to $130 million.
Why Hartford matters
Connecticut reimburses towns for part of the cost of approved school construction, and the rate depends on the project. Board of Finance Chair Michael Imber put the build-new rate at about 11 percent. The board's tax model assumes 22.14 percent, a rate its slides say "will require an act of the Connecticut General Assembly."
That is the job the draft schedule gives the 2027 legislative session, before the referendum.
The draft schedule
The schedule Nestor walked through is labeled a draft. Its main dates:
- October 2026 to January 2027: community outreach, including a communication plan, a project website, building tours, a community survey, presentations and a question-and-answer forum.
- January 6, 2027: the state legislature's long session opens. From January to March, the town would seek support from its legislative delegation for a higher reimbursement rate or a change to the state's minimum square-footage requirements, and meet with legislative leaders and committees to secure language in the state's bond act.
- June 9, 2027: the session ends. The schedule's goal for June is "secured special language in Bond Act signed by Governor."
- June 30, 2027, or June 30, 2028: the Board of Selectmen approves the project resolutions: a building committee, the state grant application and a referendum on borrowing.
- November 2, 2027: the referendum.
The draft lists June 30, 2028, as one possible date for a resolution setting the referendum, which would fall after the November 2027 vote. Asked about that line, which a board member noted had not been changed in the timeline, the Colliers representative said that if the grant were filed in 2028, the referendum would be set "sometime into September" 2027, shortly before the November vote. A separate construction schedule from Colliers, dated July 30, 2026, puts the November 2, 2027, referendum in both of its versions, followed by a 16-month design phase, 20 months of construction, occupancy in the fall of 2031, and then demolition of the existing building.
When the state starts paying
The two versions of the Colliers schedule differ on when the town files its state grant application, in June 2027 or June 2028, and on when the referendum is formally set. Both lead to the same vote and the same fall 2031 opening.
"All of these scenarios require a November 2027 referendum," Nestor said. Moments later she added: "The trigger that allows us to get reimbursement is not when we apply, it is when we have the vote, when it gets approved by the townspeople."
The Colliers representative agreed. "Absolutely. You nailed it," he said. Filing later, he said, means "you're carrying more of the cost a little bit longer prior to being able to request reimbursement from the state."
Asked whether filing in 2028 would delay construction by a year, he said: "No, you're not delaying construction at all."
Either way, the whole cost goes to voters. "The state requires that you approve the full amount," he said, using $125 million as an example.
Two routes to a higher rate
The Colliers representative described a route to a renovation-level rate that he said "typically doesn't need to be done legislatively." "There is a state statute, that if the architect certifies that it is more expensive to renovate than to build new, you do a renovate as new evaluation," he said. That differs from the Board of Finance slides, which tie the 22.14 percent rate to an act of the legislature.
Low said the town will also need a "space waiver." The middle school groups students into teams by grade, and she said "it looks to the state like we are building excess square footage because the state doesn't recognize the teaming model."
The lobbyist proposal
Low asked the boards to hire outside professional services to lobby the legislature and to help with community engagement.
"Given the price of the project, I believe we should use all the tools possible," she said. "Lobbyists and community engagement services absolutely will cost money, but even if it yields 1% more, it's still a win."
She said she did not have a price, then offered a rough one: "perhaps up to the range of around $75,000, but please don't ever hold me to that." The decision is not the school board's to make. "This is not something that the Board of Ed can do as an entity," Low said. The Board of Selectmen would have to approve it and the Board of Finance would have to appropriate the money.
Nestor left the meeting for that part of the discussion, "just as an abundance of caution, just in case I might be your legislator," she said. Nestor is the Democratic candidate for the 26th State Senate District, which includes Weston. She won her party's endorsement in May, and State Rep. Lucy Dathan, who had challenged her for the nomination, later dropped her primary bid.
Selectwoman Lauren Traum said that if a hire raised the reimbursement rate, it "would more than pay for itself."
The question came back near the end of the meeting, after Nestor had returned. Board of Education Vice Chair David Felton asked the selectmen for a commitment to hire the lobbyist. Nestor said, "I can't be involved in that." Traum said the hire "would be money well spent," but noted that the third selectman, Anthony Pesco, was absent. Felton asked that they move to a request for proposals anyway. "Time's a-ticking," he said. "And it's costing us money." With Nestor stepping aside and Pesco absent, Traum was the only selectman in a position to act on it. No action was taken.
The lone no vote
Board of Education member Nicole Wallach told the boards she had cast the only vote against the recommendation when the school board made it.
"I was the only person on the board to vote no for this plan, and so I feel compelled to share that here," she said.
She gave her reasons. Campaigning door to door, she said, she met residents without children in the schools, and "I don't believe that they would support this referendum, or this project." She said the town has other capital needs, and that the board was "relying on reports that are eight, nine years old."
She said she would now go with the board's recommendation: "I fully support and will work with the town and everyone." She added that she was still not comfortable comparing options on 2017 or 2019 numbers. She also disclosed that, by her own calculation during the meeting, her daughter's class would be the first to use the new school.
Superintendent Erica Forti argued against waiting. "The middle school is an identified capital need," she said. "Waiting in an emergency gives us far fewer choices and flexibility."
What happens next
Nestor closed by saying the town would "start moving forward with this timeline as best we can," aim for all three selectmen at the next joint meeting, and put together a communication plan "that this isn't done ad hoc and reactively." No date was set.
Imber asked that the next joint meetings be held in person and open to the public. "I'm frankly ready to stop navel-gazing," he said.
The Board of Education's communication committee discussed on October 2 holding public question-and-answer sessions with the Board of Finance as soon as late October. No dates have been set.