New Haven Independent

The Dwight School, a former elementary school on Edgewood Avenue, closed its doors last June. The Board of Education passed it to the city, which announced in November that it was for sale. The city now appears to be closing in on a deal with Achievement First, the charter school organization behind Amistad Academy and Elm City College Prep.

Dacia Toll, the president of Achievement First, said her organization would like to combine the Amistad Middle and Elementary schools (currently in Fair Haven and on the Boulevard, respectively) into a single K-8 school.

Toll said the original plan was to tear down the older portion of the school and build a new one. Now her group is also considering extensive renovations instead, while also making “cosmetic” changes to a newer addition. The project is expected to take two years to complete.

Toll said she hopes that the deal will happen before the end of the fiscal year, on June 30. The price for the building is still unknown, as it is currently being appraised.

Neighbors Wary

Dwight residents were caught off guard when the city decided to sell their shuttered neighborhood school. Now that they know who the buyer is, they’re not about to be burned a second time.

When neighbors gathered for the monthly Dwight Community Management Team meeting last Wednesday, the hot topic was how to prepare for upcoming negotiations with Achievement First, the charter school organization poised to buy the old Timothy Dwight School.

Dwight neighbors had hoped to turn the building into a community center.

Local residents want to make sure that the new school is willing to be a “partner” with the community. The partnership they envision could include reserving spots for neighborhood children and making sure that the building and grounds continue to be available for community events.

The Dwight neighborhood has a legal claim on the newest portion of the Dwight School. Neighbors said at the meeting that they hope that this will provide them with some leverage for bargaining.

The List

At Wednesday night’s meeting, a strategy for negotiations with Achievement First began to emerge: prioritize neighbors’ requests so that they know when and where to take a stand.

Alderwoman Gina Calder (pictured in top photo) said that neighbors have been putting together a “lengthy list” of requests to make of a new Amistad school. “We need to figure out which items on the list are deal-breakers,” she advised the meeting. “And see which we can compromise on.”

Pat Wallace (pictured), who lives a block from the school, said that she would like to see children from the neighborhood getting preference for spots. “To me, that would be the best outcome.”

Neighbors at Wednesday’s meeting were reluctant to talk specifically about what was on their list of requests, not wanting to tip their bargaining hand before they sit down with Achievement First. But, in general, the neighborhood wants to make sure that the new school is open to sharing its facilities with the community.

Curlena McDonald, vice-chair of the Dwight Management Team, said after the meeting that schools in the Dwight neighborhood, “have always been partners” with the local community, allowing the school to be used for neighborhood functions.

McDonald (at right in photo) said that she wants to “make sure it’s not a school that alienates young people in the neighborhood.” She mentioned that reserving spots for local children would be key in avoiding this alienation. “You could live across the street from a school and need to go to one five miles away.”

During the meeting McDonald spoke about the need to be firm in negotiations. “If we’re not moving forward, we’ll leave the room,” she said. “If they’re going to be drop-dead, we’ll be drop-dead, because we hold the cards.”

“This is a serious situation,” Dwight Management Team Chair Florita Gillespie said at the close of the meeting. She said that she wants to live up to the work of neighborhood teens, who conducted a neighborhood survey over the summer. They concluded that teens would like to see Dwight School turned into a community center. “We will not let them down,” Gillespie told the meeting. “Their work was not in vain.”

After the meeting, Gillespie said that the community is simply looking for a partnership with the new school. “We want to be partners. Of course we want to be partners.”

The Leverage

The Dwight Management Team has more than just a neighborly interest in the Dwight School. They have a legal claim as well, one which they hope to leverage in their negotiations.

Some ten years ago, the Dwight Management Team raised funds through its fiduciary partner, the Greater Dwight Development Corporation, to build an addition onto the Dwight School. They subsequently gifted the addition to the New Haven Board of Education, entering into a legal agreement which stated that the management team would always be able to use the offices and multi-purpose room in the addition. Then the Board of Education “surplussed” the building, passing it to the city to sell off.

“No one thought that the school would be closed and torn down,” Alderwoman Calder said after the meeting. “We thought we’d always have the school as a partner.”

So does the Dwight neighborhood still have a claim on the Dwight School now that the board of education has surplussed it to the city?

“That’s where things get a little fuzzy,” Calder said.

Calder said that she had been assured that the agreement with the Board of Education remains in effect. But in a recent meeting with Achievement First, she said that she heard a different message.

“More and more it seemed like it wasn’t our space anymore,” said Calder, explaining that access to the addition had been talked about in terms of “Amistad’s convenience.”

Calder mentioned that the Dwight School sale includes two parcels of land, both of which the neighborhood has an ongoing interest in using. The first parcel is the school itself. The second is a large field behind the school, which Calder said the local community has been using for years for events like picnics and basketball and softball tournaments. Calder wants to make sure that that area will still be available for neighborhood use.

“At this point I’m very optimistic that we can strike a partnership, and find a way for both parties to come to a consensus,” Calder said. She added that she would like to see the creation of another legal agreement, to be clear about types of use, and community access to the school buildings.

Amistad Responds

Achievement First’s Dacia Toll said that she “understands the concern” of local residents wary of a new owner taking over the Dwight School. She stated unequivocally that the community could still have access to the addition that they helped to build. “We’re also very open to them using the rest of the school building as well,” Toll added.

If tearing the building down is chosen as the best way forward, Toll said, the addition would be left intact.

Asked about the possibility of local children having first priority in the student placement lottery, Toll said that this was impossible. “Unfortunately, there is a very clear citywide charter requirement,” Toll explained. “We can’t make it an official legal preference.”

Toll said she was not sure whether her organization will be buying just one or both of the parcels. “We’re looking at both,” she said. “It depends how it gets split.” She said that Achievement First wants to ensure that Amistad students get a “playspace” and that they would be “happy to share” their fields with the community.

“I respect that Dwight is a very strong community. That’s part of why we’d be excited to be there,” Toll concluded.

(Note: the reporter of this story has a part-time job at Amistad Academy)