Reaction was swift to the Board of Education’s vote last week to recommend to the Town Council to consolidate the town’s two high schools, building a new high school on the Lyman Hall High School campus and closing Mark T. Sheehan High School. On Feb. 27, the Board of Education voted 8-1 to recommend to the council that a new, 300,000 square foot facility be built on the Lyman Hall site that is estimated to cost $216 million, of which $122 million the town would be responsible for after the state’s 43% reimbursement rate. The school board’s argument for the one high school is that enrollment is dropping, with only 59% of the Sheehan building currently being used. While the Board of Education voted in favor of the one high school proposal, the majority of teachers who responded to a Wallingford Education Association survey feel otherwise. Of the 243 teachers who responded to the survey, 49% favored renovating both buildings “as new,” 21% were in favor of making “basic repairs” to the buildings, and 29% supported consolidation of the schools, according to union president Anne Varrone-Lederle.
https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/Wallingford-school-merger.html