East Hampton School Cuts From July That Haven't Come Back

East Hampton Middle School is down to one well. The other, a deep one under the school's parking lot, has failed. If the one that is left goes down, the fallback is trucking water in, which Facilities Director Steve Fontanella told the Board of Education on Monday, Oct. 26, would be "an extremely expensive proposition" for any length of time.

A new well is one of a long list of projects Fontanella wants in next year's capital budget, the part of the town budget that pays for big-ticket projects, and much of the list costs more every year it waits. Repaving the middle school parking lot, where he said "we've had cars get stuck," would have cost about $350,000 last year. Now it is about $470,000, and it has slipped to 2028.

Asked by a board member which items were the biggest safety concerns, Fontanella said he could not rank them. "If I have to close school because there's no water, that's the most important thing to the entire school," he said, and "everything on this list needs to be done." He leaves the district Nov. 6 for a job in another district.

The board also heard that there will be no middle school basketball team this winter, and voted to send the governor and state lawmakers a letter on school funding.

A dry well in a school with water problems

The failed well once gave 2 to 5 gallons a minute. It is "down to zero now," Fontanella said. The main well gives 15 to 20. The state would like the school to have a backup, he said, and the district is asking for money to drill a new one.

Superintendent Dr. Timothy Van Tasel called being down to a single well "a big concern" in "a school that has predominantly had water issues." The district has raised it with the town, he said, which may want to act soon. From what he understands, finding water in East Hampton is not always easy, he said, and because the old well sits under the parking lot, a new one may have to be drilled somewhere else.

What waiting costs

Several projects planned for this year went unfunded and are moving to next year, Fontanella said, which pushes the following year's projects back too. Moving the middle school lot to 2028 moves Memorial School's lot to 2029, according to the minutes. "The longer we wait the more expensive it's going to be," he said.

The Center School roof, about $750,000, according to the minutes, needs the board's approval before the district can apply for the state's reimbursement of about 52 percent. Fontanella also wants to replace all four of the district's playgrounds, at about $150,000 apiece, the board was told. "The kids get cut. They rip their clothes," he said. The slides are cracked and have already been flipped over to get more use out of them, the minutes say, and worn equipment could eventually mean closing playgrounds.

The middle school commons, where students eat lunch, needs a $200,000 heating and cooling unit that would add air conditioning, according to the minutes. Fontanella described "100 degrees in the commons while they're trying to eat lunch." He also asked again for $200,000 a year to be set aside for future heating and cooling work. He puts it in every year, he said, and every year it is taken out.

Some work is already paid for but had to wait because the budget did not pass until the fourth referendum, on Aug. 26. Asbestos removal and new floors in the middle school's sixth-grade classrooms are scheduled to start after school ends in June.

No middle school basketball

The full basketball program, two boys' teams and two girls' teams, would have cost more than $16,000, and a single team of 12 about $7,800, according to the minutes. Van Tasel said the district could not raise the money. Middle school sports were cut from this year's budget to reach the figure voters approved, and the district has been relying on donations to bring them back.

Parks and Recreation is setting up after-school basketball clinics for boys and girls at the schools instead, Van Tasel said. A family has agreed to cover what volleyball's participation fees do not, according to the minutes, and parents and the middle school PTO are raising money for baseball and softball. The board accepted a $1,000 donation for middle school sports from Town Council member Richard Knotek.

Door alarms at Memorial

Technology Director Rich Fielding asked for $60,000 next year, according to the board packet, for sensors on every outside door at Memorial School. They would alert the main office when a door is opened when it should not be, or is propped open, he said. Van Tasel tied the request to "the circumstance that happened at Memorial School this year." The board's Oct. 5 minutes say a student who left Memorial was found safe about 30 minutes later, with help from a community member and police.

A letter to Hartford

The board voted unanimously to send a letter on school funding to the governor and state lawmakers, including East Hampton's state representative and state senator. Board member Matt Engelhardt wrote it, Board Chair Nancy Kohler said, and the Board of Finance and Town Council are to sign it too; the council endorsed it the next night.

By January, the letter says, it will have been 14 years since the state adjusted its school aid formula. "Without adjusting for inflation, the school system loses more than $2 million annually in funding," it says, and the town "went through four referendums before taxpayers finally approved a spending plan."

Other business

The board backed the 2027 slate of resolutions from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, the state school boards' group. Eight members voted yes. Board member Nathan Jaycox, who said during the discussion that he was "against broad, non-conditional school choice" and also objected to the resolution on student mental health, abstained.

The board also approved a middle school trip to Quebec in February 2028 and $25,000 from its non-lapsing fund, an account of unspent money from earlier school budgets, for two used tractors with snow blowers to clear school sidewalks.

It was Cristal Chan's first meeting since the board appointed her Oct. 5 to the rest of former board member Kenneth Barber's term.

The board next meets Monday, Nov. 9, at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Cristal Chan is the newest member of the Board of Education. The board appointed her unanimously on Oct. 5 to the seat Kenneth Barber left when he resigned Sept. 15, and she will serve the rest of his term, which runs to November 2027. The board interviewed candidates in a closed session before its meeting.

At the board's Sept. 28 meeting, Board Chair Nancy Kohler said Barber had devoted more than 10 years to the schools.

Also on Oct. 5, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Mary Clark shared last spring's state test results. Among the 24 districts the state compares East Hampton with, because their students come from similar economic backgrounds, the town moved up to 10th in math, from 13th, and to 5th in science, from 8th.

At its Sept. 28 meeting, the board unanimously accepted an $8,000 gift from the East Hampton Lions Club to sponsor the Belltown Preschool, the preschool program at the high school, for this school year. The gift pays the program's stipend and funds scholarships that bring down its $300 tuition. Mary Krogh, honored the same night as one of this year's Friends of Education, helped arrange it. Superintendent Dr. Timothy Van Tasel called it the beginning of a broader partnership with the club. "Lions have just been a wonderful organization," he said.

Update, Oct. 28, 2026: This story earlier gave the date of the middle school forum as Tuesday, Oct. 27, from the Board of Education's calendar of events. The district's events calendar now lists it on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m., in the middle school library media center.

Board of Education member Kenneth Barber has resigned, and the board is seeking a new member, Board of Finance member Daniel Finn reported Sept. 21. The district's roster lists one of its nine seats as "To Be Determined."

The eight members listed are Chair Nancy Kohler, Vice Chair August "Augie" Arndt, Secretary Edie DeSimone, Corrine Clark-Barney, Matt Engelhardt, Nathan Jaycox, Sarah LeBlanc and Sarah King.