nothin Hill Central Returns To “Stunning” New Home | New Haven Independent

Hill Central Returns To Stunning” New Home

“Main Street.”

Melissa Bailey Photo

Diana Isadoro can walk next door to class next week instead of taking a bus across town, as Hill Central School returns from a three-year hiatus to a new, $46 million building back in the neighborhood.

Hill Central School is one of the city’s dying breed of neighborhood schools, accepting all students who live nearby, with no kids bussed in through a magnet lottery. The K‑8 school, which serves about 415 students, has been camped out in swing spaces for three years as the city tore down and rebuilt its home at 140 Dewitt St. in the Hill neighborhood.

When students start their first day of school on Wednesday, they’ll return to a completely new building with high ceilings, a safe inner courtyard, and lots of light.

Hill Central is the 36th school to be built or rehabbed as part of the mayor’s $1.6 billion school construction program, which launched in 1998, according to schools spokeswoman Abbe Smith. The 74,000 square-foot building was designed by local architecture firm Boroson-Falconer and built by Giordano Construction.

For the last three years, Hill Central students had to hop a bus across town to Fair Haven Heights, where their school was split up between two buildings — the former Quinnipiac and Benjamin Jepson schools.

Now that the building’s back, most students will be walking to school again, according to Principal Glen Worthy.

Worthy and Assistant Principal Lillian Fontan led a tour of the building on Thursday, five days before families start showing up for orientation.

They strolled through the school’s main corridor, called Main Street.” Light poured through high, glass ceilings.

I can’t get over it,” said Fontan. I can’t believe we’re here.”

Hill Central’s home last year was dingy, run-down, very dark,” and not conducive to the needs of middle-school kids, according to Worthy. There were no water fountains and there wasn’t much space to play.

I can’t wait for the kids who were at the old building to come here — they’ve never been to what I call a true school,” Worthy said.

The cafeteria in the true school” features a mural by artist Duvian Montoya.

A curtained stage connects the cafeteria with the gym, so the stage can be used by either side. In the center of the gleaming new basketball court lies a painting of the school’s mascot, the bobcat, designed by former student Isaac Sanchez.

A new fuel cell heats, cools, and powers the building as well as the nearby Clemente Leadership Academy.

Upstairs, history teacher Bob Sobolisky (pictured) stapled together a board where students will show off their best work.

Sobolisky, who teaches 7th and 8th grade, declared the building phenomenal.”

When he walked in the door for the first time, he said, I was stunned.”

It’s everything you could ask for as a teacher,” he said. There are smart boards and computers in each of the 21 classrooms. The library has a Mac computer lab, and there will be laptops and iPads for teachers to use.

The technology is up to date,” he said.

Sobolisky has already set up his two classroom mascots, minutemen that stand guard over my classroom.” They have yet to be named — his new crew of students will do that, he said.

Christine Kapusta’s 2nd-grade classroom was already set up, complete with pencils sharpened just the right amount.

Nearby, math teacher Lynn Evans unloaded supplies in her classroom.

I’m in heaven,” she said of the building. I haven’t landed on Earth yet.”

The old Hill Central was built in the 1970s as a K‑5 school. Students had to move out when the heat system broke, according to Fontan.

The school has one modern science lab equipped with a weather bug” that beams in the weather from an antenna on the school roof.

In the hallway, Fontan marveled at the lockers — something the swing space didn’t have.

The second story looks down on an enclosed courtyard, a playground reserved for little kids. The courtyard has artificial turf for kids to tumble on.

The school has cushy spaces for adults, too, including a conference room with a view of Main Street” from above.

Hill Central is entering the third year of a quiet turnaround effort sanctioned by the federal government. The school got a $1.59 million federal School Improvement Grant over three years to undergo an overhaul aimed at lifting test scores. The effort has been working, Worthy said: The number of kids scoring proficient” in reading has climbed from 24 percent in 2008 to over half in 2012.

Now that we’ve got the new building, we’re going to continue that momentum,” he said.

One major advantage to the new building is that it’s close to students’ homes, which means kids can walk home from after-school programs, for which there is no busing. Worthy said he’s planning to expand after-school offerings now that the school is back in the neighborhood.

I want them to have ownership of this building,” said Worthy, who came up through the New Haven Public Schools. Worthy has worked at Hill Central for nine years, five of those as principal.

The new spot makes it easier for parents to pop by the school to see a recital or check in on a problem, he added: Most of our parents don’t have cars.”

Worthy said he hopes the proximity will boost kids’ attendance, which last year sat at around 92 percent.

Next door, neighbors applauded the effort.

Magnifico,” declared neighbor Blanca Rodriguez from a second-story porch. She said the school has made the neighborhood safer, and has slowed the traffic down.

Mom Manuela Isadora said when her daughter Diana went to Hill Central last year, it was difficult to get there.”

She celebrated the opening of the new school.

Instead of a bus ride across town, she said, it’s only a step away.”

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