School Building Plans Advance, For Now

Eyeing a $16 million pricetag, Hamden Legislative Council members allowed school construction plans to advance to the next step Wednesday evening, but not without making it clear that once it comes time to float the actual bonds, the price might just be too high.

After a long evening of deliberations, District 4 Rep. Eric Annes set the tone as he cast his vote.

“Aye,” he said. ​“For now.”

Wednesday’s vote allowed the Board of Education to get its grant applications for construction projects to the state Office of School Construction Grants and Review. Before the board can really go forward with the plans, however, the council must still pass the ordinance that will allow the town to bond for the projects.

The projects are part of the BOE’s ​“3R Initiative,” a district-wide restructuring plan that will require changes at every school in the district except for the high school. The plan has six parts, many of them interrelated: close the Church Street and Shepherd Glen schools, bring sixth graders to the middle school, incorporate the Wintergreen School building into the district, renovate the Ridge Hill and Dunbar Hill schools, create universal pre‑K, and create intra-district magnet schools.

Read more about the initiative here and here.

On May 7, the council met as a committee of the whole to advance the plan. As they did so, many members expressed their concerns about the cost of the project, saying they would allow it to advance but might not ultimately end up supporting it. On Wednesday, some council members said the same thing.

In all, the plan will cost around $81 million, but the state, if it provides the grants it has said it will, will cover $52.6 million, leaving $28.6 million for the town. Of that $28.6 million, the council has already approved $12.4 million for the West Woods and Alice Peck school construction plans. The town will float those bonds this summer. Regardless of what the council decides on the 3R Initiative, the West Woods and Alice Peck plans will go forward.

The rest of the plan, which is still up in the air, will cost the town $16.2 million, while the state will pay the other $32.3 million if the grant applications are successful. A bulk of that part of the plan will cover two ​“renovate as new” projects at Dunbar Hill and Ridge Hill, and additions to the middle school. It also covers the cost of adding pre‑K classrooms to two schools, making additions to Wintergreen to accommodate all of the district’s special-education students, and repurposing Church Street to house the central offices and Hamden Collaborative Learning Center.

Deputy Finance Director Rick Galarza provided an analysis of how the project would affect the town’s debt service. It showed that, even with conservative estimates, it will be possible, but it will not be cheap.

The bonding breakdown shows that for the new parts of the initiative alone, the town will bond $24.3 million, which includes $8.1 million for contingency. For Alice Peck and West Woods, the town will bond $12.4 million, though those bonds have already been approved. In total, that brings bonding for school projects to $37 million. Galarza’s debt analysis shows that the project, including West Woods and Alice Peck, will add $2.95 million to the debt service in 2021 (including principal and interest), with $2 million of that coming from the new parts of the project. By 2045, the debt payment for the whole project will have decreased to $1.6 million. He said that the project would still not push the town above its debt ceiling of 10 percent of the budget, and that it would leave the town around $5 million extra it could bond each year.

“I am a taxpayer in Hamden, and so is the rest of my family,” said At-Large Rep. Betty Wetmore, who is one of two Republicans on the council. ​“And you know what? We can’t afford it anymore.”

“I’ve had a lot of people tell me: ​‘slash everything you can,’” said Minority Leader Marjorie Bonadies, “’because I am being taxed out of my home.’”

Yet BOE members, and Council President Mick McGarry, said that investment in Hamden’s schools is the best way to make the town attractive to families, encouraging them to move to the town and grow the grand list.

BOE Chair Chris Daur said that of any factors in a town that affect housing prices, ​“the strongest correlation” is with the quality of schools.

Other Options?

Though the 3R Initiative will come at a significant cost to the town, the BOE made the argument that not doing it will end up being just as costly, and will mean missing out on a massive rate of state reimbursement.

“The BOE is asking us to make a change, so the question we have to ask is: do we need to change, or is the status quo acceptable?” said McGarry. ​“The status quo is not acceptable.”

The state has told board members that it supports Hamden’s plan and sees it as a potential model for other towns in the state.

“I’ll spend 20 million to get 60 million any day,” McGarry continued. ​“Yes, we don’t have a ton of money, but we do have to plan for the future.”

The project is the board’s response to a number of factors, including racial imbalances in Hamden schools. In 2018, the state notified Hamden that three of its schools — Church Street, Shepherd Glen, and Helen Street — have ​“pending imbalances.” One way or another, said Superintendent Jody Goeler, the district must find a way of shuffling which kids go to which schools.

“The board has to and is morally committed to ensuring we have racially balanced schools,” he said. The options are either to redraw attendance zones and force families to switch schools, ​“or we can do a little bit of that and also provide more choice for parents.”

Goeler and the board have said that the magnet schools are an innovative way of balancing Hamden’s schools. The board has proposed an extended day career pathways at Helen Street, science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) at Dunbar Hill, global studies and citizenship at Ridge Hill, and environmental sciences at Bear Path. Each of the magnets would have its own small attendance zone, and open up a certain number of seats to students from other parts of town. The board would use a weighted lottery for acceptance to the magnets, with weighting to ensure racial balance.

The board also said that regardless of whether the 3Rs go through, the Dunbar Hill and Ridge Hill will require significant renovations soon anyway. The board provided an analysis that showed that together, the schools will need around $16 million in renovations in the next 3 – 8 years.

“It’s getting to a point where these cannot be addressed with just patches,” said BOE Member Arturo Perez-Cabello. ​“The money will be spent. The question is: do we want… to go forward as a team and maximize the potential of those 16 million?”

If the town does not move forward with the 3Rs, renovations at Dunbar Hill and Ridge Hill would likely come entirely out of the town’s pockets. The 3Rs, the board argued, would allow the town to do those renovations, plus much more, for the same $16 million cost to the town because of the high rate of state reimbursement.

Some council members said they like parts of the plan, but not others. At-Large Rep. Lauren Garrett said she is committed to the universal pre‑K part of the plan, but that she is not convinced the magnet schools will actually achieve the racial balance the board believes they will.

Yet carrying out only certain parts of the plan may not be an option.

“We are playing Jenga with education,” said McGarry. ​“You take out the wrong block and the whole thing comes tumbling down.” The state, he said, liked the whole plan. If only parts of it come through, it might not provide the reimbursement it has all but promised.

Though the plan passed on Wednesday, certain council members, including Eric Annes, Marjorie Bonadies, and Brad Macdowall, said they would have to think hard about how they will vote when it comes time to actually bond. The bonding ordinance will come before either the Education Committee or the Finance Committee on June 3. If it passes committee, the whole council will either vote on it at that meeting or at the subsequent one on June 17. The council must pass the ordinance by June 30 if the state is to consider the grant applications.