Officials: $99M city academy would add little debt
Students would still graduate with a diploma from Danbury High School and have access to the theater, fields and clubs at the main school.
DANBURY — The plan to build a $99 million career academy for the middle and high school would have a relatively small effect on the city’s projected debt service over the next decade.
“You see a fairly consistent pattern here, that we have it fairly well under control,” David St. Hilaire, the city’s finance director, said at a City Council workshop on Monday.
The city’s debt service — the amount of cash required to pay back the principal and interest on a loan in a given time — is projected to peak in fiscal year 2027, whether Danbury borrows
for the proposed academy or not, he said.
His projections show the city’s debt service would be $22 million that year with the academy, compared to $21.7 million without it.
“It’s just a little bit higher in that year, but then it stays a little bit higher for a few years after,” St. Hilaire said.
That’s a good deal, said Vinny DiGilio, City Council president. Danbury would get a new school with a creative teaching model, for little financial impact, he said.
“A lot of places would enjoy being able to invest $100 million and not have it change their day-to-day cash flow,” he said. “That’s pretty profound.”
The academy is meant to help address the growing school enrollment and provide students with opportunities to study various career fields and pursue internships.
“We’re really at the precipice of a wonderful opportunity for Danbury,” Superintendent Sal Pascarella said. “When this comes to fruition, you’ll have a lighthouse school district nationally.”
The academy would raise the city’s tax rate by less than one mill over the next 10 years, compared to the impact from Danbury’s existing debt service. The outstanding balance on the city’s debt would be about $117 million in 2027 with the academy, compared to almost $104 million without it.
Danbury does not expect to need to cover the $99 million alone. It’s racing to meet the state’s deadline for a grant that would cover 80 percent of the academy’s cost. Plus, $2.4 million of city costs would be covered by money City Council approved last year for school projects.
The city is required by law to submit its application by Oct. 1, but the state has asked for a draft by Sept. 1, so that any necessary tweaks can be made.
This would be the first time the state would reimburse a municipality for a school project that uses the “design-build” method, but Danbury’s project may become a model for other towns and cities.
“The hope is that at some point other communities are going to be able to utilize this format of doing school construction,” said Antonio Iadarola, the city’s public works director and engineer.
State and city officials meet every other week to discuss the project, with the state last week giving the city the OK to seek an architect.
“That was a huge thing to get out of the way,” Iadarola said at a Steering Committee meeting on Monday.
The academy would be built within three “pods” of the Summit, a mixed-use development in the 1.2 million-squarefoot former Union Carbide world headquarters on the city’s west side.
Developers have said they are on board with the project and plan to reduce the number of apartments they would build to make room for the school.
Next week, the Planning Commission will review the Summit’s revised plans, as well as a zoninig regulation change that would allow a public, secondary school to be built there. The Zoning Commission will review these matters the following week, with a public hearing planned for May 11, said Sharon Calitro, city planner.
The Summit has promised to pay an annual fee that started at $550,000 to offset the costs of any additional students from the apartments.
The proposed reduced number of apartments shouldn’t affect that fee, said Mark Boughton, the former mayor who is heading the Steering Committee behind the project.
“We’re really going to hold the line on that,” he said.
Council members questioned how the school district plans to afford to staff the building.
The district already needs to hire seven- to- eight additional teachers annually at the high school due to enrollment growth and will look for staff who have certifications in specialized areas the academy would focus on, Pascarella said. Those employees could then work at the academy when it opens.
But the district should expect high salary costs, he said.
“When you get degrees in robotics, engineering and physics, you don't get first-year teachers,” he said. “They’re much more expensive.”
Administrators have researched the labor market to see what skills are needed in the community and state and eventually plan to have six academies within the school.
These academies would focus on professional health services; information, cybersecurity and technology; scientific innovation and medicine; global enterprise and economics; art, engineering and design; and communications and design.
The district is looking at opening the middle school portion first, then one academy and then a second academy, Pascarella said. Up first would be the scientific innovation and medicine one, as well as global enterprise and economics.
“I just wish I could go there,” Pascarella said.
Students would still graduate with a diploma from Danbury High School and have access to the theater, fields and clubs at the main school.
“We could never replicate those things with this school,” Pascarella said.