Officials Break Ground On New $112 Million Central Middle School

GREENWICH, CT — Even though the holidays are still a few days away, the community received an early gift on Friday as officials broke ground on the construction of a new $112 million Central Middle School.

Shovels were plunged into the snowy ground behind the school where the new building will be built, and students watched virtually from inside the auditorium.

CMS was built in 1958 and closed for a brief period in 2022 after an inspection found structural concerns. Students were sent to other schools as the school district worked to fortify the building.

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The new 125,000 gross square-foot building will be constructed just north of the current school, with a new extended driveway, a separate bus loop and new parking areas.

The existing school will continue to function until the new structure is complete and receives a final certificate of occupancy.

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Once abatement and demolition of the existing school building is complete, the athletic fields will be moved to the previous building location.

CMS Principal Tom Healy spoke to students before the groundbreaking ceremony. A former history teacher, he modeled his comments after President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

“Three score and seven years ago, our town’s forefathers brought forth upon this land a new school building conceived in public education and dedicated to the proposition that all students deserve the right to maximize their potential. Now we are engaged in a project, testing whether the school community, and most importantly, pick-up and drop-off procedures, can long endure,” Healy said.

“It is for the sixth graders and their younger siblings and neighbors still in elementary school to dedicate themselves to this unfinished work of making CMS the number one school in all of Greenwich,” Healy added. “And finally, we resolve that a new institution for excellence and learning will be born here and last here passed by the people, for the children, and made of the builders which shall never perish from this earth.”

Superintendent of Greenwich Public Schools Dr. Toni Jones thanked all those involved for making the project possible, from the Board of Education, PTA, and CMS Building Committee, to the project’s architect, SLAM Collaborative, and the builder, Turner Construction.

Jones also thanked Greenwich’s delegation to Hartford who helped secure funding for the new school. Greenwich is expected to receive a $22 million reimbursement, about $14 million more than initially projected.

“This building will stand for probably 50-plus years. All of you will be 65 and 70 years old, and this new building will still be standing,” Jones told the students. “We are extremely grateful for all of the hard work. We know this building has served us well.”

Board of Education Secretary Laura Kostin, who serves as the board’s liaison to the CMS Building Committee, also spoke briefly to the students.

“To all the students who will someday walk through the doors of the new CMS, we hope that while you are here, you will know that a devoted team of people wanted this building for you — a place where you will grow, where you will study and begin the journey toward whatever you are meant to become,” Kostin said. “This building is for our truly special CMS community.”

If all goes according to plan, the new CMS could open before the start of the 2026-2027 school year.

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