Leasing of Madison’s Island Ave. School To Be Discussed Thursday

MADISON, CT - This Thursday a public hearing will be held on the possible leasing of the Island Avenue School to Our Lady of Mercy Preparatory Academy. The public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Polson School.

First Selectman Tom Banisch had this to say about the hearing:

“On Thursday, Oct. 11, there’s a public hearing and discussion on the proposed Our Lady of Mercy Preparatory Academy (OLMPA) lease for Island Avenue School.

“The purpose of the hearing is to educate the public as to the details of the lease in advance of a town meeting scheduled for the week of Oct. 22 to vote on the lease. If needed, we’ll have another public hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

“If you aren’t able to get to the meeting, I’d like to give you a summary of the details of the lease, some history as I know it, and the reasons/rationale behind the town proposing this lease.

“A few years ago, Our Lady of Mercy School (OLM) was notified by the Sisters of Mercy that its lease was being canceled. While it was able to negotiate a lease extension, the archdiocese subsequently decided to combine that school with St. Mary’s in Branford to create the Eastern Shoreline Catholic Academy and close OLM.

“The town was approached after the initial lease was canceled, to see if we could help provide alternatives to OLM leaving Madison. We all agreed it was a good thing to try to keep the school here.

“To that end, we discussed various possibilities as time went on. When the archdiocese made the decision to close the school, OLMPA was formed to try to keep a school here. It investigated several potential sites, including Academy School. When the decision was made by the Board of Education to close Island Avenue school, that group’s focus turned in that direction.

“In a series of executive session meetings, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) discussed with OLMPA the possibilities for a lease that might be worked out, starting with a three-year lease.

“The feeling among the selectmen, and others, was that while we saw the sale of the property for development and inclusion on the Grand List as our preferred outcome, we wanted to try to help, but first and foremost needed to protect the interests of the taxpayers of Madison.

“The proposed lease (which is posted on www.madisonct.org) has a one-year term with a lease payment of approximately $535,000. This number was arrived at by using a combination of factors. One is the net present value of what a sale of the property would yield later as opposed sooner.

“We also included other costs such as the taxes that would have been derived from the development of the property while OLMPA was there. We included costs that would be incurred by having the school here, like school bus transportation and the school nurse, which we must provide by state law. These costs had been removed from our budget calculations this year. The BOS and our finance director felt that this was a compromise that protected our town finances while offering 0LMPA an alternative.

“The question at the town meeting will be whether or not the town should execute this proposed lease. Please attend so your voice can be heard,” Banisch said.

Photo by Jack Kramer