New Haven Independent

Posted by: Gary Doyens | August 8, 2008 1:49 PM

How much will this school in West Haven cost the City of New Haven taxpayers? Who gets the PILOT dollars? How much is West Haven kicking in to the operational costs and construction costs?

I'm always amazed at how these stories celebrate a further expansion of a school system with a new school and no mention of how to fund it and who is picking up the tab. We're so successful at building these new schools, the BOA and BOE just authorized another $48 million to cover dollars spent for whic the state will not reimburse. A recent study released in Hartford last week showcased how New Haven is one of the worst offenders in using the wrong formula to calculate student enrollment - which then triggers a smaller reimbursement from the state or worse, a recapture of dollars they already gave us.

This "we will build it and they will come mentality" married to a long tradition of sorry financial planning is wreaking havoc with city taxpayers. The mixed up message maven Mayoraga today had to admit the city fudged the increase we got hit with this year. It wasn't 9 or 9.8% as she had been hawking - it was 14.5 or more percent increase in property taxes. She and her boss must use the same math methodology Mayo does in calculating graduation rates.

Posted by: FacChek | August 8, 2008 4:55 PM

In or about may 2007 the finance committee passed a resolution to restrict the use of new city tax money to finance the city's share of building this new school. The amendment was sponsored by Alder Jackson-Brooks and passed. When the issue came to the full board, Alder Silverman introduced an amendment with language that attempted to by pass the way the amendment was structured, and passed by finance. that amendment passed the full board. Now the question to be answered at so point is what amendment has precedence. Normally the full board amendment would be controlling, however, the larger question becomes the language passed in the full board does not amend the language as passed in finance.

So, Who will pay? not West Haven, they did not sign on to it. Not UNH, they will only contribute in-kind contributions.(science instructors).

What's the deal Clark? How are you paying temporary school housing for a project that is not suppose to be built and financed by New Haven Taxpayers??

Posted by: Esbe | August 8, 2008 7:11 PM

Gary -- I think you are correct here. New Haven taxpayers can no longer afford the school re-building program. 14.5% tax increases, year after year, are just not possible and something has to give.

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | August 9, 2008 8:37 AM

NEW HAVEN'S "SCHOOLS TO NOWHERE" MAKES THE BIG DIG LOOK LIKE CHUMP CHANGE.

At $1.9B and growing, New Haven's school facility improvement plan:

- Costs $95,000 per student.

- Over the next 40 years, the amount totals over $2,000 per student PER YEAR.

- Costs $15,000 per resident of the city of New Haven.

- Costs almost $600 for every man woman and child in the state of Connecticut.

Welcome to New Haven's version of the "Big Dig", only on a much grander per capita scale. Whereas the Big Dig at a current cost of $22B will be used by millions of people, primarily the 7 million people of greater Boston, New Haven's schools will be occupied by a mere 20,000 children in New Haven.

Congratulations New Haven: You have undertaken THE most expensive and wasteful school construction project in the history of the country, - and we're not even done yet!

While New Haven's schools were certainly in a state of disrepair when this program began, some facilities were in worse shape than others. The story of this amazingly irresponsible chapter in financial history, is that this mayor saw an opportunity to take advantage of the state's misguided school construction policy. By leveraging state financing through the categorization of as many New Haven schools as possible as "magnets", he was able to place on the backs of state taxpayers a much larger share of local school construction costs than on the backs of local taxpayers.

The formula encouraged him to undertake the largest school construction program ever. But somehow this "smart" guy got way out over his skis. Some schools were certainly built responsibly. But others are so far over the top with cost over-runs and high end touches and designs, that it makes Ted Stevens' "bridge to nowhere" look like a bargain.

Just like so many public sector construction projects, this one got waaaay out of control. Even with the state in at at over 90 cents on the dollar, the taxpayers of New Haven are stuck with a $100 million tab. Property taxes have just risen by 15%. Oh, and it ain't done yet.

See if you can pass the adult's version of the CMT (Construction mastery test):

Question: What was the Mayor and Superintendent's forecasted budget for the school construction plan when they unveiled it over ten years ago?

A. $1.5 billion
B. $1.0 billion
C. $750 million
D. $180 million

Answer: D - a mere $180 million!!...less than 10% of what the projected costs are now.

The lack of critical press coverage about this almost as amazing as the overspending.

Looking back, the root cause of this folly was the misguided policy driven by Sheff v O'Neill, to promote integration as a method of equalizing educational quality between the cities and the suburbs. But as everyone now knows, there has been absolutely zero progress at bridging the achievement gap in New Haven over the last 10 years.

The one little problem that the Sheff proponents have: There is no evidence whatsoever that shows that simply integrating a school or a classroom closes the academic achievement gap between low income minority students and their wealthier white suburban peers. Reformers know that the answer lies in basic good education delivery - in whatever kind of school it is found.

So sadly, it is a fact that palacial school buildings do not produce good education, just some fat and happy architects, construction firms, and unions.

Oh, and a big tax bill.

Posted by: Yair | August 10, 2008 11:49 PM

I think the idea of a science high school in New Haven is actually very important, if done right. But I am disappointed by this article, which tells us NOTHING about the science planned for the high school and instead tells us all about a language teacher with an interesting life story.

What will the science curriculum be like? What will the math curriculum be like? Who is developing it and what science schools from other communities are being used as models? Is the school successful so far at recruiting really good science and math teachers, and what are the plans for doing this? I'm concerned that the school official involved offered nothing in this direction, and the reporter apparently asked no questions about it.

Maybe this is really a human interest story about a middle eastern travelogue, and the high school is just a footnote. In that case, it should be presented as such. At any rate, I would be very interested for the Independent to investigate more carefully what is really in store for this school.

Posted by: Seth Godfrey | August 14, 2008 1:43 PM

As an organizer of the event I would like to convey a belated thanks for the coverage of our travelogue on Syria at the New Haven Free Public Library. It is important to add the event was made possible by the collaboration between the New Haven Free Public Library and Simon Samoeil, Curator of the Near East Collection at Yale University Library. Simon Samoeil was also the organizer of the April 2008 trip to Syria.
The months of planning culminated in an exciting evening of the screening of the film " Syria: Between Iraq and A Hard Place" and the engaging discussion/slideshow by Richard Abatiello and Theresa Capetta on their impressions of their recent trip to Syria. It is this type of civic engagement that the New Haven Free Public Library is committed to on an ongoing basis. In addition it would be remiss of me to forget the splendid samples of Syrian cuisine provided by Mediterranea Restaurant for an audience of 75. It is this truly meaningfull collaboration between public and private institutions and "citizen diplomats" and the business community that make for such fine programming success at the New Haven Free Public Library.

Posted by: Richard Therrien | August 21, 2008 1:55 PM

Much of the information about the science/math at the new school can be found in other NH Independent articles about it when the grant was approved last year. There has been an entire year of planning into the school's program and curriculum, in conjunction with New Haven, West Haven, University of New Haven science and engineering departments. Successful magnet math/science/engineering schools from around the country have been used as models. The school will start with 88 6th graders and have great science, math, AND engineering teachers hired awhile ago.
Richard Therrien, NHPS Science Supervisor