New Haven Independent

The answer to these and other questions pertaining to New Haven’s $1.5 billion citywide school construction program, came at a meeting Monday night of the Board of Education’s Finance Committee, which held its regular monthly meeting Monday night.

Among the first items brought to the attention of finance committee chairman John Prokop (pictured below with head of school construction Susan Weisselberg) was an urgent request by City Engineer Richard Miller (in photo with map) for $75,000 for design fees related to lessening the steep incline and reducing the degree of the curve in Lexington Avenue, where it meets Russell Street in Fair Haven Heights. This is the site of ongoing construction of the new Benjamin Jepson School.

“In my view,” said Miller, “you can’t expect parents safely to bring their kids to school there unless we correct this. It’s a real hazard.”

The actual physical work, including building sidewalks for pedestrians in the immediate area of Jepson and redoing driveways as need be. will be funded through the City’s Engineering Department, Miller explained. “My request is for design fees so we can get this launched and all will be in readiness for the opening of Jepson in late August or early September of this year.”

Bob Gervasini, a program manager for the school construction authority, also made a presentation related to Jepson. He said the construction was benefiting from all the warm weather (not including the frigid night of the meeting). “We have 42 masons, double crews, and we’ve been able to compress the work days down from a projected 170 to 108 as well.” The project was looking good, but, as is common with construction projects, $104,000 in change orders related to masonry and electrical work was requested.

Twenty-two schools having been rebuilt since the late 1998. Seven like Jepson and the Troup Magnet School are in the midst of new construction or major renovation. Seven more are the advanced design state, four in planning, and six more projected. So, as the body that deals with change orders, bonding, cost over-runs related to increases in steel prices, the Finance Committee is busy indeed.

“And yet,” said Robin Golden, the NHPS’s chief operating officer (to the right in the photo), “the public really doesn’t know as much as it should about the good, cost-saving work being done by a lot of the dedicated people in the system.”

She was particularly proud of the “greening” of the schools and the staff that spends a lot of time on energy management.

“For example,” she said, “all our newer schools have dual fuel generation systems. That means that last year, when gas was so expensive, we ran the schools on oil, on which we locked in a great price. We can switch back and forth, wherever the deal is better, and the cost savings are enormous.”

Prokop (pictured with Weisselberg) added that in the 12 years he’s been on the board he estimates that at least $15 million dollars have been saved by what he termed proactive measures. “I mean changing light fixtures in the buildings, having light sensors, upgrading controls so that when no one’s in the building, the cost of operation will drop, and even staggering the buses. We have to rent these buses for the full day, so by staggering schedules, we rent fewer buses. Over the five or so years since we began this, we are saving millions.”

The low sulfur fuel the buses burn, added Golden, is slightly more expensive, but in keeping with the green mission of the school system.

Lisa Grossman (to Golden’s right in the photo above) is a fund-raiser for the Capstan Group. Her proposed contract with the board, which includes trying to tap private funding sources for the construction, for example, of the green, solar-paneled rooftop garden planned for the new downtown home of The Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, was also on the agenda. Weisselberg suggested that outside funders, perhaps national ones, might be interested even in naming rights to the green roof, since the building is being designed by Cesar Pelli. In answer to Prokop’s further inquires, Grossman’s job, if her contract is approved, would also include identifying outside funders for theater and audio systems, for example, or, in the language of the finance committee, FF&E, meaning fixtures, furniture, and equipment.

“And what if you’re not successful in getting these outside funds, which we of course love?” he asked.

“There are contingency plans,” said Weisselberg.

All recommendations offered at Monday’s meeting, said Prokop, go to the executive committee of the full board for approval next month.

And what about that Ford Explorer? “I find we save money by buying solid used vehicles,” Cindy Ward said, “and the security department’s work up around Clarence Rogers School near West Rock, often requires they go off road to prevent illegal dumping on school property. So bigger than a car, smaller than a truck, and tough. When I got here, our security department vehicles were not in great shape, but that’s changed now.”

Her plans, involving vehicles not only for security, but for food service, warehouses, and snow removal (NHPS owns several Jeeps with plows for that), also include new machines that will clean school halls and bathrooms with new and very “green” efficiency. She’ll be test-riding one in the coming days down the halls of the Fair Haven Middle School, and coming back. Then, most likely, she’ll return to the next meeting of the Board of Education Finance Committee with the results, and, yes, a requisition.