The Board of Education is seeking city money to help construct a new home for Strong School on Southern Connecticut State University’s campus that would bring aspiring teachers closer to the classroom, as part of a six-school capital plan unveiled this week.
The magnet school’s new K‑4 program would work in partnership with the university’s School of Education, offering education students opportunities to observe experienced teachers.
The building’s construction is the largest improvement project in the Board of Ed’s $18 million proposed capital projects budget for this fiscal year and one of six required to get approval through the Citywide School Construction Committee as well as the Board of Alders.
The budget was presented at Monday’s Board of Ed meeting.
The cost of construction totals $45 million, with just under $9.5 million requested from the city. Last spring, the state approved funding the remaining portion of the cost, said Superintendent Garth Harries.
The school’s partnership with the university has already started and will continue to improve once the two are on the same campus, Strong Principal Susan DeNicola said.
“We’re excited,” she said. “We know that the process takes time, but that’s OK.”
The new building will have four classrooms per grade, surrounding an observation room for Southern students. The school’s other amenities include a cafeteria, half-court gymnasium, media center, art room and music room. The partnership with Southern Connecticut State is funded through a magnet grant, said Deputy Superintendent Imma Canelli.
If the construction committee approves the state grant application, it will then go to the Board of Ed in January for formal approval and then to the Board of Alders for funding.
Strong School’s building at 130 Orchard St. has been used as an overflow school for K‑2 since 2011. The building will likely be used as an overflow space until all pre-K‑4 projects are complete.
The Citywide School Construction Committee will meet Thursday to decide whether or not to formally approve the application.
As the district comes to the last of the projects in its $1.5 billion citywide rebuilding program, it begins to focus on ways to maintain existing buildings, said Will Clark, chief operating officer. Regularly investing in repairs “allows us to have less unprepared or unpredictable spikes in cost,” he said.
Other projects up for approval Thursday are the renovation of a clock tower at Fair Haven School, as well as investments for general upkeep at King-Robinson, John C. Daniels, Columbus Academy and Bishop Woods.
The Board of Ed’s capital budget is requesting around $18 million from the city this fiscal year.
New Haven proposes to build yet another school! For a city of about 130,000 New Haven has more schools now than 60 years ago when it had a much larger population (164,000). We do not need another school to add to the tax burden of New Haven citizens.(Did you get your tax bills yesterday?) We do not need another school to provide an education for our youth. We have plenty, probably more per capita than any city of its size in the United States! We have "regular" schools, multiple magnet schools and numerous charter schools. We are over-schooled! We have more than enough schools and programs to meet the needs of our students. Many of us question the quality and effectiveness of some of the current programs and policies, but new school buildings will not address the problems of poor attendance, poor grades, poor test scores and less than stellar graduation rates!
Now we need to school the Mayor, the Board of Education and the Board of Aldermen that another new school in New Haven is a luxury, not a necessity, which we cannot afford! We do not need to build a new school on a college campus to have a partnership with a college education program. Those prospective teachers can drive their own cars or take a bus to existent New Haven public schools to get their training.I am very wary of the amount of educational experimentation this school system has imposed on our children, usually with unimpressive results but at the cost of millions of dollars! Program after program has been tried and abandoned for others only to fail to achieve the desired results. I am also not too keen on the idea of having a kindergarten to 4th grade school located in an adult college community.
If you agree, make some telephone calls, attend some meetings, express your opposition to those who will make the decision.