Renovations complete: John Wallace Middle School celebrates
by Mark Jahne
Editor
It’s always nice when a construction project comes in on time and under budget. That’s exactly what happened with the long-awaited renovations to John Wallace Middle School.
A grand reopening ceremony was held the afternoon of Sept. 10. It included a ribbon cutting, student-led tours and the opening of a time capsule sealed 25 years ago.
The school band played for invited guests and the chorus sang the National Anthem.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Maureen Brummett spoke about the importance of this renovation while at the same time thanking voters for approving it in a referendum.
She was among several speakers who spoke about how this project was discussed for several years and delayed time and again before the commitment was finally made to get the work done.
“This project has dramatically improved our safety, security and instruction at John Wallace Middle School,” she said.
The school was built in 1972 at a time when the concept of “open classrooms” was popular with architects and school districts. The classrooms had doorways, but no doors. Curtains were hung instead but they did little to block out the noise from other classrooms and the hallways.
“This project was under budget,” Board of Education Chairperson Amy Perrotti said.
She thanked the Building Committee and its chairperson, former mayor Stephen Woods, for their hard work. Woods has presided over multiple school building projects in town. She also thanked voters for approving the money to pay for this renovation.
“This is my ninth or tenth school building project. I have three children who went to this school,” Woods said. He joked about the outdated open school design featuring “pretend walls.” There were also areas where walls were needed.
“It was a huge effort and a lot of collaboration,” Perrotti said.
But it was worth it because it created a better learning environment for today’s students. She said students, faculty and staff are all delighted with the results.
“It definitely needed updating,” state Sen. Matt Lesser said.
State Rep. Kate Farrar praised the effort and said she was pleased that the town’s three-member legislative delegation was able to secure a higher reimbursement rate than usual for the John Wallace project. That reduced the cost to local taxpayers.
The state funded 75 percent of the estimated $10.7 million cost. State Rep. Gary Turco also praised the project and those who made it happen.
“We desperately needed to get this done. It’s so cool to see it completed,” Mayor Jon Trister said.
He recalled how it was one of the highest priorities when he was first elected mayor in 2023.
Newly appointed Principal Marco Tirillo worked at the school for several years as its assistant principal. He is thrilled at the improvements, especially the removal of the old curtains.
“I never thought in my entire life I would be so excited about doors,” he said to laughter from those in attendance. “A project of this scale takes a village” to reach successful completion.
He also pointed out that the work was done while school was in session but reported no significant problems occurred because of that.
Friar Architecture of Farmington created a new floor plan designed to create new learning spaces. More than 29,000 square feet in wings 3, 4 and 6 were transformed. All classrooms now have access to natural light.
Those renovated spaces now have new furniture and modern technology. There are large mobile classroom displays that allow for easy classroom layout changes and a teacher “voicelift” system to ensure voice clarity throughout the room.
The general contractor was Construction Solutions Group of East Hartford. Newfield Construction of West Hartford led the project.
The contents of a time capsule were displayed in the media center. They include large envelopes created by every student who was in eighth grade in 2001 and whatever they wanted to put inside.
That included magazines, newspaper clippings, a photo of the boy band NSYNC, a small Game Boy video game device and audio cassette tapes. NL