Susan Weisselberg felt like Tinker Bell, she said, when she checked out the fly loft of the under-construction Co-op High’s magnificent theater. That’s fortunate: She can use some magic financial dust for the new school’s completion.
It turns out the school system needs another $1 million for the construction of the arts high’s new home on College Street.
Weisselberg, who oversees the school system’s $1.5 billion rebuilding program, made the comment during a Tuesday afternoon tour of the school’s 350-seat theater, its intimate black box theater, dance studios, dressing rooms, individual rehearsal spaces, music and film production facilities to die for — just three months before the scheduled January 2009 opening of the interdistrict magnet school.
When it opens, Cooperative Arts and Humanities High will be the 28th renovated or newly built school in the $1.5 billion citywide effort. Six more are in various stages of construction, four or five in the planning.
Deisgned by architect Cesar Pelli and built by Giordano Construction, the new Co-op will cost $69 million in all. As with almost all the city’s new schools, the bill is largely footed by the state, with only $3 million of that to be paid for by the city. So far, that is.
For the balance of the costs required to put the grace notes on the building, potentially up to $1 million, the Board of Ed will be looking to the city.
A resolution to that effect was passed at the board’s Administration and Finance Committee Monday. It is set to go before the Citywide School Construction Committee next week, then to the Board of Aldermen.
The request for the money comes at a time of layoffs and program cuts in the both the school and overall city government budgets. The $1 million for Co-op would come from the schools’ capital budget, not its operating budget.
What happened?
“This is a magnificent facility for the kids and it will also be a tremendous community resource,” Weisselberg said. “But it’s also the most technically complex site, with equipment no other schools have. Plus, it’s on a tiny site, which caused complications, and there were other glitches too. The city has approved $69 million. We’re going to try to keep what’s left to be done under a million.”
Local business people and alders past and present, such as Bitsie Clark and Shirley Ellis West, were dazzled by the facilities at Tuesday’s tour. They saw the spirit-lifting dance studio, where kids at the barre – ballet, that is, not liquor — will be visible to passersby below on George and College.
Organizations such as the Arts Council and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas have already begun inquiring about the performance spaces, said school arts director Keith Cunningham. “They’ll have to wait for about six months,” he said, “as we see how the building works, but then, absolutely.”
Officials had originally explored, and rejected, other sites for the school. One was at Chapel and Howe, which outraged the community because of the local stores that would have been displaced. Another was at Audubon and State, rejected for being too far away from the Yale drama, art gallery, and other schools whose professionals will be a big part of the school’s rich curriculum. Ground was broken on the current, smaller site in 2004.
“The tight site has meant, for example,” Weisselberg said, “that steel used in the construction has had a very difficult time to offload. Things like that have been part of the unexpected additional costs.”
On a day when the city announced that 35 people would be laid off, including five BOE employees, to balance the budget, city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts declined to comment on the additional funds being requested.
However, Bitsie Clark had an idea when she heard the additional amount to be requested
“Whoa,” was her first reaction. “But look around. I’m the only alder person here. I think Sue ought to bring the whole Board of Aldermen down here to see this magnificent place. That’ll help.”
Another revenue source, however modest, might be the 3,000 square feet of commercial space on on its College Street side, which the school is looking to rent out to local merchants. Evelyn Cooperstock, of Cooper’s Dress Shop, was intrigued. “If there were parking, I might consider,” she said. She’s leaving town, though, pushed out of a location for the second time in 47 years by a city redevelopment project. All the storefronts in the complex across the streets are being razed to make way for College Square, a now-stalled project that originally was going to consist of condos, then a hotel (now, who knows?). Cooperstock has to be out by November.
“At first I didn’t like the idea of the school,” she said, “but I do now. Imagine all the girls who might come across the street to buy their prom dresses!”
She’ll be moving to the Boston Post Road, however. Even if she rented one of the spaces, there would not be sufficient parking, she said. The school’s staff will be parking in the commercial garages that in effect surround the new school.
Weisselberg said she is proud of the design of the school internally. As for the parking, she said,“We rejected ideas to build parking lots because that would take additional land off the tax rolls, something we did not want to do.”
Of the 450 kids to move into the school in 2009, 65 percent are from New Haven, 35 percent from surrounding towns. Almost all will be bussed; they will be dropped off on a small alley, dubbed “Co-op Way,” between Crown and George, so the drop-offs will not adversely affect local businesses. Eventually the school will have 650 young artists.
Weisselberg (pictured with proud construction manager Tom Smith) was asked to assess her chances when the $1 million request arrives, as it must, before the Board of Aldermen. She paused, looked up at the fly loft, then delivered her line: “I’m optimistic.”
Well folks, there go another 30 to 40 city jobs to pay for this. Johnny Boy must have known this yesterday when he announced the layoffs.