After claiming they were shut out of negotiations over the sale of a vacant Newhallville school, a group of New Haven clergy turned up the heat Friday, filing extensive records requests and even threatening legal action.
It was the latest salvo in an ongoing battle over a proposed deal to sell the vacant Martin Luther King school on Dixwell Avenue for $1.5 million to the Achievement First (AF) charter school organization, which plans to tear it down and build a new high school in its place.
Newhallville Alderwomen Brenda Foskey-Cyrus and Delphine Clyburn have been negotiating for months with AF, working out a “community benefits agreement” as part of the deal. The alderwomen organized several community meetings to discuss the deal.
The Greater New Haven Clergy Association, meanwhile, has begun clamoring to be a part of the discussions. Its members, including pastors of churches nearby the school, say they were not consulted on the deal.
The group has been firing out press statements condemning the alderwomen, AF, unions, and the city.
On Friday, the group’s president, James Newman, turned up the heat with two Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, one to the mayor and the other to the Board of Aldermen. He asked for an extensive list of documents related to the proposed school sale.
In the FOI request, Newman demands information about any aldermen, city staff, or officials who have relatives who work for AF or attend its schools. And he calls for phone logs, meeting notes, and other documents from several city boards that have discussed the deal.
Newman emailed the requests to the press Friday along with a statement entitled, “Is There Enough Loot To Go Around?”
“Every time another secret is unveiled we see the community being further raped by its so called leaders,” the release states. “This crime spree has gone on too long. The public has the right to know what is happening and who the players are with this transaction. Therefore, we are submitting the following requests for information. In addition, we are not ruling out the possibility of legal action if the parties involved continue on the path now laid out.”
“The community knows what we’re doing for them,” responded Alderwoman Clyburn by phone Friday. “They know. They’re working on it with us. They know we have their best interest. They know that.”
“This is not the first community benefits agreement negotiated in this city, and I bet it sure won’t be the last one either,” mayoral Chief of Staff Sean Matteson said in an email Friday. “This is an agreement being negotiated between Achievement First, residents, representatives and organizations from and within the Newhallville community, not the City. As for the Freedom of Information request from the Clergy Association we will of course honor the requests and provide whatever documents we have.”
Alderwoman Foskey-Cyrus’ Community Development Committee will hold a public hearing on the deal on Monday, Dec. 17, immediately before a meeting of the full Board of Aldermen.
And while this all drags on the clock is ticking...and every day that passes it becomes less likely that a new school will be ready to open for the fall 2014 school-year...the longer the MLK site stay abandoned...the longer that NEW HAVEN KIDS go without a nice new school. A PUBLIC-charter school that will cost the city $0...a PUBLIC-charter school that is buying an unsellable piece of land for $1.7 million. There are thousands of families in Newhallville who want this to move forward ASAP, there are tens of thousands of families around the city that see this as a win-win-win for the city, for the neighborhood, for educational options and for children. It's time to sign a reasonable deal and more forward. And then it will be time to figure out how to make this CBA process more reasonable.
For some reason the clergy assoc. has been calling Achievement First a "business." It's not a business, but rather a non-profit network of public-charter schools. But now I can understand why so few businesses want to open up in New Haven--if I ran a for-profit business and I had to go through this process it would be hard to justify opening in New Haven versus surrounding communities. (And I can't stand the suburbs!)
The people obsessing over how good a deal they can get out of the CBA are overlooking the real deal -- a great new school building built on an abandoned property! More kids on the path to college! That's the deal!