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Perez: Officials have “a lot of explaining” to do.
Citing a $10 million increase in the price tag to the city and a reluctance to pay West Haven $1 million in permit fees, aldermen are holding off on a key approval for an $85.5 million new home for New Haven’s science-themed magnet school.
The approval concerns a plan to build a new home for the Engineering & Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) in West Haven near the campus of the University of New Haven. After years of negotiations, West Haven has grabbed four properties through eminent domain to make way for the school.
Now New Haven’s school board is asking the Board of Aldermen for permission to buy the properties for $1.8 million, in the hopes of paving the way for construction this winter.
Schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark said the approval is time-sensitive: If the project fails to get local approval by September, he said, the state’s reimbursement rate could plummet from 95 to 80 percent.
Clark appealed to aldermen for approval at a July 15 meeting of the joint aldermanic Finance and Education Committees. He met 90 minutes of questions from skeptical aldermen. They held off on giving their approval, asking instead for more answers; they have not met to consider the matter since.
Since the meeting, the school board announced a surprise $3.5 million deficit in last year’s budget, forcing the city to cover the shortage, and putting the ESUMS price tag in a new context.
Aldermanic President Jorge Perez, who sits on the Finance Committee, cited two main concerns about the project: A ballooning price tag, and the cost of West Haven building permit fees.
Since the state and aldermen first approved the project in 2007, the total cost has grown from $59.5 million to $85.5 million.
Perez balked at the $26 million increase.
“They’re going to have a lot of explaining to do,” he said in an interview Friday.
Another sticking point: Clark’s estimate of how much the city will have to pay has increased by $10 million, up to $16.15 million. That equates to 19 percent of the total project. That’s based on an estimate that the state will consider $12.5 million of the project costs “ineligible” for reimbursement.
Clark couched this as a conservative estimate, based on the worst-case scenario of negotiations with the state. (On previous projects, he gave aldermen more optimistic estimates, only to meet uproar when the schools had to ask the city for $18 million extra to cover ineligible costs.)
Perez replied that paying $12.5 million in ineligible costs isn’t the worst-case scenario: “The worst-case scenario is we don’t approve the project.”
Clark outlined the construction costs in a letter to aldermen issued last month; click here to read it.
The letter lists a half-dozen costs likely to be deemed “ineligible,” including:
• A $700,000 redesign of the project. (Architects originally drafted a design without knowing where the school would be located; they redrew the design once a site was secured.)
• $3.1 million to rent a swing space at Leeder Hill Road in Hamden.
• $1 million in building permit fees.
Other costs contributing to the $26 million increase include:
• $1.3 million in legal fees and $4.4 million in construction fees, both of which went up during the seven-year delay.
• $2.5 million in off-site improvements (such as work at nearby traffic intersections).
Clark argued that the project is well worth the cost: ESUMS has quickly emerged as a top-performing school. It focuses on preparing kids for science and math careers, which is a local and national priority among educators. From their new building, kids at ESUMS will be able to walk to UNH’s engineering campus to take college courses. And they’d be able to take advantage of up to 100 percent scholarships at UNH.
Clark said aldermen already approved the $85.5 million project as part of an overall bond authorization. West Haven has acquired the four properties; New Haven now just needs to transfer ownership in order to move forward with the project.
The district will find other places to cut to address its budget deficit, Clark said; school construction is paid for by money borrowed through bonds.
“Insulting” Fees
Perez balked at the notion that West Haven would charge New Haven for building permit fees. New Haven usually waives those costs for its own school construction projects.
“I think it’s insulting that they’d try to charge us for permits,” said Perez during the July 15 meeting. He said West Haven is benefiting from the school, including being guaranteed 20 percent of the seats in the 616-student school.
“I think we should find another city to build it in,” Perez grumbled.
Clark replied that he shares Perez’s concern: “It’s certainly a frustration of mine.”
But he pointed out that West Haven has been instrumental in making ESUMS happen, including going through eminent domain and zoning approvals. He said he’d also lobby the state to pay for a larger portion of the site.
Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro echoed Perez’s concern about the building fees and the total project cost.
“I find it very difficult for me to support this project in the city right now, with these taxes,” she said.
Reached Friday, West Haven Mayor John Picard said he spoke with New Haven Mayor John DeStefano a month or two ago about the building permit fees.
“I cannot waive the fees,” he said, nor can his building department. “It’s got to go before the city council.”
“I’m open to discussing the amount,” he said, but the final decision is up to legislators. Given that West Haven is losing taxable property for the project, he said, “my intuition is [New Haven is] going to be paying a fee.”
East Rock Alderwoman Jessica Holmes expressed concern that the school wouldn’t accommodate more New Haven kids.
Clark said the 616-student school will have 65 percent New Haven kids and 35 percent suburban kids, as do most magnet schools. Making it bigger would require redesigning the building.
Aldermen ended a 90-minute discussion without taking any action on the matter. No meetings have been scheduled to address this issue. Aldermen could schedule another joint Education/Finance Committee meeting, or, if they want to hasten the process, send the matter straight to the full Board of Aldermen on Sept. 2.
Clark framed the matter as urgent. The state is currently reviewing the project. If ESUMS is missing a key aldermanic approval, Clark said, “then the project cannot move forward.” The project is up against a September deadline for approval, or else it risks losing its state reimbursement rate, he said: New Haven has been grandfathered into a 95 percent reimbursement rate of all eligible costs; that rate could slip to 80 percent if the project fails the state review and ESUMS needs to reapply.
If the project fails to get state approval, he said, the city would have to pay back $3 million to the state right away.
Clark said the 19-percent local share is consistent with other school construction projects, given their ineligible costs: “There’s nothing unusual about that percentage.”
ESUMS would be the capstone of Mayor DeStefano’s $1.5 billion effort to rebuild or rehab all the city’s schools, which began in 1998. ESUMS is the last new school building in the pipeline. Of all the projects, Clark said, “this is the most exciting program I’ve ever been involved in.”
He said his goal is to open the school in the spring of 2015, so the school’s founding 6th-graders can graduate from the new school, “walk right across the campus, and get a full ride at UNH.”
“Every day that goes by, pushes that [completion date] back,” Clark said.
Perez said he supports the project in principle. His budgetary concerns are “no reflection on the merits of the program,” he said. But he said he may have to vote no: “I’m not going to vote for something if they’re going to charge us a million dollars” for building permits.
Holmes said she wouldn’t stand in the way of the proposal. “We have an enormous amount of debt” and “troubling” financial circumstances, she said, but the project has many benefits. “The location is good, the partnership [with UNH] is great,” and the project will build on the successes of the school.
“I don’t think it makes sense to send it back” given that the city may lose its 95 percent reimbursement rate, she said. “I can’t picture blowing the project out of the water at this point — it has too much potential.”
Superintendent Garth Harries echoed that sentiment.
“It’s an awfully attractive project,” he said. It hits a lot of priorities that New Haven is trying to focus on, including improving science and math education and preparing kids for careers and college, he argued.
“I hope the alders can reaffirm the choice they’ve already made — recognizing that we’re going to have to make other choices to confront the budget deficit.” The new building is key for ESUMS’ partnership with UNH, he said.
“We’ve got to be both fiscally and educationally prudent,” he said. He said the school board needs to consider cuts in situations that would have a less dramatic effect on kids’ education.
The BOA's fake pause is not an indication of how they will act. When Boss Proto from East Haven demands construction jobs, he'll get them from his pliant BOA.
Holmes is right that we have an enormous amount of debt and troubling financial circumstances. The project should be halted until New Haven gets its debt and pension obligations under control.