Decommissioned more than 10 years ago, Reynolds School may be pressed back into service, thanks to the need to socially distance students beyond the current classroom capacity. At the Tuesday, Oct. 6, Bristol Warren Regional School Committee meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Brice detailed the plan to the committee, a plan which is subject to change and full of uncertainties.

Here’s what they do know: there are more than 300 Bristol elementary school students whose families chose distance learning this semester. They may (or may not) exercise their right to change to full in-person learning for the next term, which begins Dec. 10. In anticipation of that possibility, on Septe. 29, Dr. Brice sent a letter to Town Administrator Steven Contente asking to recommission Reynolds, the town’s only available ADA-compliant school building not currently being used as a school.

How many students may the district need to accommodate after Dec. 10? To date, they don’t know — but the district needs to prepare. “We will send out a survey before Thanksgiving to see how many students will be returning,” said Dr. Brice. “There are still a lot of unknowns. How much space will we need? We don’t know at this time. If conditions worsen and we go in a different direction, we won’t need any.”

If the district does need it, they will need to rush to do the work to bring the building up to fire code and bring the technology up to speed.

“We are gearing up for the possibility that we will have more parents that request in-person school for their elementary students than we have available for them,” Dr. Brice said in an earlier interview.

“We are absolutely planning for the largest possible return of students," he said. "We know that there are a lot of parents pleased with distance learning, (but) there may also be parents who believe it is not working for their children.”

There are currently about 114 seats available throughout the four elementary schools in Bristol, with 300 students enrolled in distance learning. If all of them were to return for the second trimester, “we would need well over 100 seats.”

Dr. Brice does not know how many seats Reynolds could ultimately accommodate, but “we'll be working through that over the next month,” he said.

“We’re also going to look at other large communal areas that we could potentially turn into classrooms, and we would have to add air purifiers” and other safety measures and equipment required by the state.

Also unknown now is how staffing would be impacted.

“We just have to wait and see what the numbers are,” he said. But presumably, he said, teachers currently overseeing distance learning could potentially be freed up to go back to the classroom when the time comes.

Eviction notices out this week

The recommissioning is, at best, inconvenient for the building’s tenants, most notably the Bristol Theater Company whose theater, offic, and dressing rooms occupy much of the first floor.

“We’ve been here for seven years,” said theater board chairman Marie Knapman of the 30-year-old theater company, which spent much of its existence as a cultural vagabond, renting space for a week at time from schools in order to put on their annual performances. Having a stable home for the past seven years has been a boon for the theatre, allowing it to have stable storage and rehearsal space and triple the number of shows they could produce.

They’ve put money as well as sweat equity into the space, with a new refreshment stand, an expanded stage, divided dressing rooms and dedicated costume storage.

Ms. Knapman, a longtime school district parent, understands the school department needs the space, but she was caught by surprise. “I always knew that (recommissioning) was a possibility. The town was very clear about that,” she said. “We just didn’t think it would actually happen, since it wasn’t in shape to be a school when it was decommissioned.”

Town has maintained school

“We certainly support this outstanding theater group,” said Town Administrator Contente. “But if the School Department needs the building for classroom space, I’m not going to stand in the way of that. It’s critical that the kids get back to school.” It is not likely that the town could stand in the way of this plan, even if they were inclined — the building was bequeathed to the town for use as a school and that mandate has never changed.

“We were charged with maintaining it, and we have recently put in a new furnace and made repairs to the floors and the exterior,” said Mr. Contente. “But if the School Department needs it, we will return it to their care.”

How much will this cost?

The costs of bringing Reynolds up to speed are not immediately known, but Superintendent Brice will be looking into that over the coming days. One option mentioned by School Committee member Sheila Ellsworth was the possibility of using modular trailers on the campuses of existing open schools, which would allow the overflow population to use existing support staff and cafeteria facilities. Preliminary estimates for trailer rental were in the ballpark of $100,000, but Superintendent Brice said he would get those numbers to the committee.

A pricey sacrifice

Just last year, the theater company celebrated the award of an $18,485 grant from the Champlin Foundation for lights. It was awarded on the condition that they had a long-term lease, which they did — albeit a breakable one.

Ms. Knapman is very concerned that they will need to forfeit that grant. She is also concerned that, if they survive the pandemic, any forfeit of funds might prejudice Champlin against future requests.

“I’m hoping we can reach a compromise,” said Ms. Knapman, something that the school district seems willing to consider, particularly since they anticipate they will only need the space through 2021 — and the theater company is unlikely to stage any productions until late 2021 at the earliest. At the very least, if the school district moves forward with the recommissioning, the theater company will need to dramatically shrink its footprint to make the space available.

“These are conversations we need to work out,” said Dr. Brice. “My responsibility, first and foremost, is the safety of students and staff. That’s what I’m focused on.”