Norwich to try again for school renovations, consolidations

Norwich — A second attempt to consolidate and renovate city schools could start today with a proposal to appoint an 11-member committee assisted by city and school officials to evaluate the 15 school buildings and make recommendations to the City Council.

Fulfilling a pledge made in his Jan. 2 State of the City address, Mayor Peter Nystrom has proposed a resolution to establish a new School Facilities Review Committee to be considered at tonight’s 7:30 council meeting.

The City Council last May rejected a $144.5 million major school consolidation and renovation plan that would have cost city taxpayers $57.6 million if current state reimbursement formulas remained intact. That plan called for renovating and

expanding four city elementary schools, closing three others, keeping the recently renovated Kelly Middle School for grades seven and eight and closing Teachers’ Memorial Middle School.

Aldermen, including Nystrom, objected that the four schools chosen were concentrated in the western half of the city, leaving students in other areas with longer bus rides and no neighborhood schools.

The proposed committee would include Alderwoman Stacy Gould, Alderman Joseph DeLucia, school board Chairwoman Yvette Jacaruso, school board member Patricia Staley, former school board member John Levangie, former Alderman Mark Bettencourt, retired educator Paula Rosenberg Bell, teacher Susan Blinderman, Kelly Middle School teen outreach coordinator Delisia Dollinger, and parents Charles Cottle and Ryan Telford.

City officials serving as ex-officio committee members would be Nystom, Superintendent of Schools Abby Dolliver, School Business Administrator Athena Nagel, city Comptroller Josh Pothier, City Manager John Salomone, school system Facilities Manager Dolores Thayer and city Corporation Counsel Michael Driscoll.

Nystrom said he and Dolliver have been working on establishing the new committee since he announced it in his State of the City Address. They have been approaching potential members and seeking applications from parents and teachers. Nystrom said he is pleased with the proposed makeup of the committee.

“These are people who will do the work,” said Nystrom, who will organize the first meeting no later than April 15. The resolution calls for the group to report regularly to the City Council.

Dolliver said she too looks forward to working with the committee to find a long-term solution to the school system’s chronic space and financial problems.

The Board of Education on Thursday voted unanimously to approve an $83 million school budget with a $6.8 million, 9 percent spending increase — numbers Nystrom already called unacceptable.

The school board rejected a plan to restructure six elementary schools by grade level to cut 11 classroom teachers and save $800,000. Over the past several years, the school board closed three schools in last-minute cost-cutting moves. But school officials have said those drastic measures are no longer possible without renovations and expansions of the remaining school buildings.

Bettencourt, who chaired the first School Facilities Review Committee before leaving the City Council in 2015, suggested the committee start with the data gathered and paid for in the initial study. Even though the final plan was rejected, Bettencourt said, the data and some proposals remain valid.

School changes have negated part of that plan. The school system received two federal magnet school grants to convert Kelly Middle School into a science and technology-themed school and Teachers Memorial into a global studies school, both with grades six through eight. The previous plan called for keeping sixth graders at elementary schools and closing Teachers’ Memorial.

Bettencourt said no matter what the final proposed plan becomes, it will be imperative that the facilities review committee, the City Council and the Board of Education all work together on the plan to avoid the criticism and surprise rejections that occurred last year.