New Haven Independent

Posted by: Fedup | May 5, 2009 12:05 PM

Ahhh...corruption at its finest. Wake up, New Haven.

Posted by: robn | May 5, 2009 12:49 PM

so what does the UFO that landed on Forbes Ave have to do with this article?

Posted by: Alphonse Credenza | May 5, 2009 12:57 PM

I'd like to see the Department save some money by using the staff on hire.

After all, teachers have little or nothing to do for their year-round pay in the summer (except for their summer side jobs, lawn mowing businesses, summer camp coaching, EBay, visiting the Grand Canyon, the Alaskan wilderness, summer study in Rome, etc.).

Teachers ought to do some of the moving. The younger fellas can do the heavy lifting, and in the interests of non-discriminatory treatment, the ladies should pitch in moving the furniture as well. The older teachers can coordinate the logistics.

For example, hockey coach Mr. Padavetzky and gym teacher Mr. Bilstein are sure to be hung-ho about moving desks and chairs. Mr. Dipple (advanced TV watching) can plan loading and offloading of the station wagons. Ms. Handy (home economics) can make sandwiches for the crew (using leftovers from spring lunch periods).

What fun! And cost-saving, too!

Posted by: BOE Watch | May 5, 2009 1:13 PM

Wil "I make my own rules" Clark - when he is not busy steering contracts to his old firm, he is refusing to obey legally protected rights of our media. This guy is typical of the BOE - in a world of their own, out of control, with no sense of accountability to anyone.

Posted by: jawbone | May 5, 2009 1:47 PM

Why does a city of new haven school require a helipad? Is it me, or did the contractor install the helipad slightly out of level?

Posted by: impressed teacher | May 5, 2009 1:51 PM

Alphonse- Your skillful use of sarcasm and creative writing is certain proof of your high school English teacher's commitment and excellent use of his/her paid time off during the summer. Without thoughtfully planned units of study (which teachers complete over the summer), you never would have achieved such proficiency. Perhaps your teacher did take a vacation to refresh the soul, mind and body (God forbid!) Perhaps your teacher did take an extra job to make sure s/he could buy school supplies come September. Regardless, you know the ole adage, if you can read this, thank an (underpaid) teacher!

Posted by: Union Guy | May 5, 2009 2:12 PM

Why we do not use some of the people already hired is beyond me.I would think we can save some taxpayer dollars. Will Clark is another puppet to the King.This is really disgusting when is someone going to help hold these people accountable for what they are doing.Keep spending the taxpayers dollars that is all you do

Posted by: NHPS Teacher | May 5, 2009 2:23 PM

Mr. Credenza, you are mistaken that New Haven teachers have paid time off during the summer. We have a 10-month contract. We are not paid for our time the other two months of the year. We have the option to pace our paychecks over the entire year, if we would like. However, we do not have "paid time off" during the summer.

Posted by: greg | May 5, 2009 3:22 PM

CALLING ALPHONSE BACK TO THE PLANET-- I'm starting to grasp why so many postings are critical of you.When you are perceived to be wronged or disrespected{race, citizenship, and Native come to mind}, you pontificate like hell. When does it become ok to make fun of you, your familie's occupation, and your sanctimonious self perceptions, or are only you allowed to use sarcasm when posting your self important critiques of life in the Elm City. By the way , someone taught you how to place letters in sequential order, must have been in political science class, right? Did your children get home schooling, or was their mother smarter than that and just didnt tell you? Keep trashing, Alphonse!, makes the rest of us look good!

Posted by: dee | May 5, 2009 3:27 PM

When my nephew's class was moving over the summer in Milford not long ago, teachers were responsible for packing their OWN rooms, and in fact students spent the last two days of school packing boxes! Likewise, when a friend who is a teacher in Greenwich was facing a summer move, it was HER responsibility to pack her classroom. And since "Diversified does not do the actual moving," how much is THAT going to cost taxpayers? Why is New Haven paying someone over $500,000 just to make sure someone ELSE packs boxes correctly? Give me a break! How many teacher's aides could we save from a June layoff with that money?

Posted by: robn | May 5, 2009 6:40 PM

Can somebody please tell the principal I got my frisbee stuck on the roof of the school?

Posted by: bebe1222 | May 5, 2009 7:24 PM

Why not use that money and create summer jobs for the youth? They can come in during the summer pack and help with the moving. It will teach them teamwork, project management, logistical planning. But then again I am a product of the New Haven school system so what do I know.

Posted by: jawbone | May 6, 2009 9:53 AM

Is that side wall supposed to look like TV static?

Posted by: robn | May 6, 2009 10:28 AM

...in other news, Wooster Street residents begin plans to bake the worlds largest pizza on top of the new school...

Posted by: Alphonse Credenza | May 6, 2009 12:30 PM

"CALLING ALPHONSE BACK TO THE PLANET"

I'm back! It was a great trip!

&&&

"Mr. Credenza, you are mistaken that New Haven teachers have paid time off during the summer."

My mistake. Please forgive me. However, this means that there's a lot of cheap temp labor the Bd of Ed should take advantage of!

&&&

"Regardless, you know the ole adage, if you can read this, thank an (underpaid) teacher!"

I went to a private school, where they did teach me to write and I'm still grateful for it. If I had gone to a public school, I'd be lucky to be able to spell.

&&&

"...in other news, Wooster Street residents begin plans to bake the worlds largest pizza on top of the new school...'

This comment is sheer genius! Bravo/a!

Posted by: NHPS Teacher | May 6, 2009 4:54 PM

Dee: at the school where I teach, all teachers pack everything in their classrooms before leaving at the end of the school year. This is so that staff can clean, paint, or repair the rooms as needed. Be assured that Diversified will not be packing teachers' classrooms.

Posted by: dee | May 6, 2009 5:19 PM

Dee: at the school where I teach, all teachers pack everything in their classrooms before leaving at the end of the school year. This is so that staff can clean, paint, or repair the rooms as needed. Be assured that Diversified will not be packing teachers' classrooms.

Thanks for the input. You're right, Diversified apparently isn't packing ANYTHING. They're being paid to . .. I dunno what they're being paid to do. If they're not overseeing packing of classrooms, how do we explain this quote from the story? "Diversified does it all in terms of planning down to holding staff's hands. That could include assuring the principals, for example, that phone numbers can move from one locale to another, and if teachers, for example, have these beloved items that need to be moved and require special handling, they take care of all that." If teachers pack up their rooms every summer anyway, that last part about teachers' "beloved items" is utter hogwash.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | May 6, 2009 8:07 PM

Please someone who knows someone at diversity got this gig.. sad...the public can't do sh*t to stop it! again sad!

But with that said satellite dish, big pizza, ufo....what the hell is happening to the architecture of new haven. I drive around and see all these GOD UGLY building being built through out the city! Who approves these designs? We have these buildings that are equal to the ugliness of the coliseum going up (Yale's building the biggest offenders) and excluding the school on George. It is just sad seeing the beauty of our New England city being destroyed!

Posted by: anon | May 6, 2009 9:36 PM

I don't know, CHR. I think most of the new schools look pretty nice. Some are mediocre but on the whole they are certainly better than the ones plunked down in the 60s and 70s (Cross, which was built in the middle of prime parkland and therefore is by far the worst; Dwight, Columbus, East Rock et al, which have/had no windows, etc.)

That said, 1) Career High is widely known as one the ugliest buildings in New England, which is sad considering it was supposed to be a "flagship" new building and has good academic programs, and

2) It would have been much more sustainable to recycle old buildings, like the New Haven Clock Company or the abandoned Winchester plant, and preserve them for posterity as schools rather than let them sit around and rot for another 20 years. These are our heritage and it was a missed opportunity not to reuse them. With regards to #2, New Haven actually did a great job preserving a number of beautiful old historic school buildings (Clinton, Edgewood, Troup, Hooker, and the modernist SOM one in Wooster Square in particular, plus several others) even though it would have been easier just to tear them down. NH should get a national preservation award for what it managed to do, and

3) The new Co-op school is beautiful, and therefore makes up for the Career HS blight.

Posted by: Ned | May 7, 2009 12:51 PM

I often wonder how (or why) architects come up with these designs? Kids might not be learning, but at least they won't be irradiated when their town is vaporized... National school fallout shelter design competition awards (1963)

Maybe that giant pizza disc is a deflector for a directed energy weapon?

Posted by: jawbone | May 7, 2009 3:53 PM

Haven't these Architects seen Videodrome?

Posted by: ROBN | May 7, 2009 5:07 PM

ANON,

Adaptive re-use is not always as romantic as it seems. The New Haven Clock Company property is a really cool diagram and might be great for all sorts of uses, but there are many floors in the property that are saturated with irradiated ink that was used for clock dials and hands..yech!

Posted by: anon | May 7, 2009 8:33 PM

Fair point, ROBN - but in other countries, buildings of that much significance would never be allowed to rot for decades. It is just a matter of priorities!

Posted by: robn | May 8, 2009 11:13 AM

ANON,

I share your enthusiasm for adaptive reuse and for historic significance. However, its not really a matter of priorities, but a matter of specific circumstances. More often than not, late 19th and early 20th century industrial properties in CT are polluted....with the same kind of stuff that made our hatters mad.

Posted by: anon | May 8, 2009 2:13 PM

That's why we have brownfield remediation, ROBN.

Summary of our current strategy for the properties: Let the buildings rot forever, causing further contamination and disinvestment in our urban cores. Do you think developers coming into New Haven are impressed when they see some of the most significant industrial buildings in New England just sitting there, right in the middle of the city, and collapsing? After all, who cares about future generations or their heritage? Use the state funding to build new structures instead; tear down perfectly fine buildings (houses, older schools) to create room for them. Encourage private developers to build on farmland outside of the city center instead, where it is cheaper.

Better strategy: Rally people to appreciate the significance of the buildings, and to understand the enormous long-term cost savings that are involved when they are adaptively re-used. If they really can not be reused and/or rebuilt in any way (example: a uranium processing plant), then tear them down, remediate the sites and make the land available to be used for new structures, or for developers who would otherwise plow over more of our farmland.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | May 8, 2009 8:18 PM

Robn I have to agree with ANON. Despite the fact that rehabing an old building may be a bit more costly than starting from scratch and the fact that every old building ends up having some surprises when when gutting them. The end result is worth it. The quality and beauty alone makes it worth the investment. Look at what Forest is doing the the old gun factory. If they can do it why can't we do it with others.

Posted by: Tom Burns | May 11, 2009 11:37 PM

Mr. Credenza,
Of course you went to a private school, because your parents thought you to be to weak to attempt a public school education----so they forced you to read and spell while being protected from the public scholl bullies--you see the private schools give them back to the public schools if they don't behave---so you were protected---for what, so you can blog on how you learned to write correctly---grow up pal and join those of us in the challenge everyday to educate ALL of our children----the sociopaths the psycopaths the brilliant the average---
This is what we do every day in the public schools---The media states we are in a state of decline---No way--we are still and always have been the greatest education system in the world---please don't be buffaloed by the (so called) non-profits stating that they are doing a better job---they are not---while their leaders are making over $100,000 in these NON-PROFITS--What a joke!! We are all for reform--Standards of excellence for our children----All I hear is, accountability for teachers and administrators!!! Sorry, they are already successful--each one of them has achieved success---
Only one group needs to prove themselves and that group is the students-----Stop the blame game and let's set some standards of behavior and get it done--Let's start tomorrow---Tom