Schools working to keep up
As Danbury sees rapid growth, plans to add classroom space for 1,500 may not be enough
DANBURY — The city is poised to add classrooms for 1,500 more students over the next few years, but Danbury’s rapid growth has raised concerns that this won’t be enough.
Danbury is projected to grow six times faster than Fairfield County over the next two decades, with many of those residents falling in a younger demographic that may have school-age children, according to a recent report.
School buildings are already overcrowded, which is why the district plans to add seven classrooms for up to 100 students at Ellsworth Avenue Elementary School and build a career academy that would serve 1,400 middle and high school students. A preschool center opened this year to free up space in the elementary schools.
“Right now, in our conversations with the school board, the career academy and the Ellsworth annex are going to be adequate for now,” Mayor Joe Cavo said.
But he said the city is exploring the issue, with the superintendent ordering a new demographic study to give the schools an updated picture on what future enrollment could look like.
“We’ll be set to go with what the next phase of this plan will be,” Cavo said.
State Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, expects the city will find at least one other school, possibly several, are necessary.
“It’s clear there’s going to need to be more,” he said.
Danbury’s enrollment
has increased 17 percent over 10 years, during which time the district has completed seven construction projects to handle the growth, according to a draft report the city is compiling for the proposed career academy.
These projects include building Westside Middle School, creating a 900student freshman academy at the high school, installing modular classrooms at two schools, and adding or altering three elementary schools.
Projections show a 10 percent peak increase over 10 years, with at most about 1,200 more students entering the district during that time, according to the draft report.
Elementary enrollment should peak in 2022-23 with a nearly 200-student increase, while the middle schools will hit their crest in 2027-28, with about 330 more students.
Danbury High School is predicted to exceed 3,500 students in 2021-22 and near 4,000 students in 2024-25. Almost 4,090 high-school students are projected for 2029-30. This growth is expected to take over the freshman academy that opened in fall 2018, the report said.
Danbury has exceeded projected enrollment in the past — most notably in fall 2019 when 350 more students than expected came to the district.
“Some of our growth is just unexplainable,” Antonio Iadarola, public works director and city engineer, said at a recent meeting. “They’re (the state is) intrigued by it and so are the demographers. They just tend to try to figure out where it’s coming from, how it’s coming and how do you model it... and they can’t.”
COVID’s impact
The wave of New Yorkers who moved to Danbury during the coronavirus pandemic could affect enrollment, too.
“They’re choosing Danbury over some of the suburban school systems because Danbury has a very strong ESL (English as a second language) program,” Godfrey said. “So it’s an attractive district. It’s an attractive city. It’s more affordable than not, although it could be better for working families.”
Like many districts in Connecticut, state data shows Danbury’s enrollment fell by 100 students this academic year, largely due to the pandemic.
Some families delayed sending their children to kindergarten, while fewer people immigrated to the city, officials have said. Immigrants have been one of the reasons Danbury has grown, demographers have said.
Superintendent Sal Pascarella expects enrollment to tick up again once the pandemic subsides and wants the new demographer to study that.
“We’re putting in there that very possibly with everything being lifted we may be seeing another surge,” he told school board members recently.
Meanwhile, other nearby school districts, such as New Fairfield and Ridgefield, are seeing enrollment fall. A plan to expand the state’s school choice program to this area could help address the city and the suburbs’ problems by sending Danbury students to districts with declining school population.
Some, including Cavo, have argued the proposed Prospect Charter School, could help with the overcrowding in the public schools. The school would serve at least 550 students. But the Danbury legislative delegation opposes funding the school.
Middle school growth
There are already worries that the $90 million career academy won’t provide enough classrooms for middle-school students.
The academy — planned to be built within the Summit development — will have 360 middle-school students and 1,040 highschool students.
“I’m deeply concerned about that,” school board member Joe DaSilva said at a recent meeting. “This doesn't seem to address any of our middle school problems.”
The district had wanted to put 500 to 600 middleschool students in the academy, but the state said it would not reimburse Danbury to do this, Pascarella said. The city is seeking a grant from the state that would cover 80 percent of the academy’s costs.
“I’m not saying I agree with that, but that's where the number comes,” Pascarella said. “The state pushed back and it’s not permitted for us to do at this point.”
However, the new demographic study could show the need for middle school classrooms, he said.
“If they make some adjustments, then that’s to our advantage,” he said.
The state based its reasoning off eight-year growth projections that showed a peak of about 330 additional students, Iadarola said.
“That's the maximum that they ever envision a growth in the next eight to 10 years,” he said.
These figures match up with previous discussions the city has had about expanding its middle schools by about 300 students, Iadarola said. There are about 80 seats open at Westside Middle School Academy, too, he said.
“We’re even pushing the envelope with 360,” he said. “But I feel that by the time the audit comes by, we’ll have the children in our school system and we can easily justify building a 360-seat addition to our school system to support the enrollment projections.”
But DaSilva noted that the projections have been off previously, leading to Danbury to need to install portables classrooms at Shelter Rock Elementary School and again at Westside a few years after the school was built. The freshman academy at Danbury High School was too small when it opened, he said.
“It’s (the projections) always wrong,” he said.
Iadarola said it’s driven him “crazy” to finish school projects and be immediately over capacity. He said the state recognizes Danbury is “unique” compared to other communities and gave the city a “little leeway” to build a bigger academy because of this.
“I’ve already pushed the state to give us some courtesy on those numbers,” he said. “We’ve got to just keep our fingers crossed that we’re not going to exceed these projections.”