Schools

Video: Evaluating Groton's School Facilities: Fitch Middle School

Estimates For Improvements Range From $22.4 To $33 Million

Fitch Middle School was built in 1928, with separate elementary and high school entities before merging together in the 1950s as a junior high school. The school currently enrolls 413 students.

Estimated costs for capital improvements range from $22.4 to $33 million for the 90,750 square foot building.

Space is limited by the school’s proximity to Town Hall. To meet a rising population, Fitch placed five temporary classrooms outside the main building. Three of the five were built in 1971.

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Restrooms are not available in the temporary units, so students must enter the main building. The mix of close street access and many students can create safety issues.

“My wife works in the media center [at Fitch],” said Wes Greenleaf, director of building and grounds at the Groton Public School District. “A person got into that school, walked all the way into her back room, got her credit card out of her pocketbook, and left.”

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Staff and administrators keep an eye on the building. Greenleaf suggests that the real issue in security is in the students’ perceived safety.

“What you’d like to see is, you put some temporaries in and they disappear,” said Greenleaf. “Our oldest ones haven’t disappeared and we’ve added to them.”

Greenleaf said some schools - like Fitch Middle School and Pleasant Valley - would be too jammed without portables.  “If you took [them] away the size of the school would just be too small to be useful,” he said.

Fitch’s unique architectural history has left the building with a mix of fire and safety violations. Half the building does not meet code related to sprinkler installations, asbestos tiles are in need of constant repair or replacement, and handicap accessibility is limited.

Disabled students currently enter the school through a rear door located near the school’s boiler room. Making Fitch’s front doors handicap accessible would require the construction of an 80-foot-long ramp, which would extend past the school’s front sidewalk and into its small parking lot.

Immediate repairs to the school have been quickly completed in the past, however. An emergency stairwell was constructed within seven days last year.

A small amount of PCB was recently detected in light ballasts at the school. A grant from the City of Groton, who provides utilities for the school, has paid for a company to replace the ballasts and lights with eco-friendly alternatives.


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