Officials celebrate huge gains in state aid for schools

‘Earth-shattering’ change to how CT refunds new projects

STAMFORD — Stamford and Norwalk elected officials have long demanded greater state funding for school projects without much luck, so it’s not surprising they were floored when they heard the state changed the rules and gave them a huge bump in school project reimbursement rates.

“The fact that this has happened is unbelievable,” said Stamford Superintendent Tamu Lucero during a news conference outside Westhill High School Wednesday afternoon.

Lucero was surrounded by a large congregation of elected officials from both Norwalk and Stamford, almost all of whom said the increase in state funding would be a huge boon for the area.

While the most commonly used word was “transformative,” Richard Freedman, chairman of the Stamford Board of Finance, used another word: “earthshattering.”

Representatives spent much of the event — called to formally announce the change — patting each other on the back for the work. But the people most commonly mentioned as the two leading the brigade in Hartford were State Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and State Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford.

Through their advocacy, they were able to convince Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, DNew Haven, to include three provisions into a budgetary bill that was passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont this week, the officials said.

Two of the provisions target specific projects in both Norwalk and Stamford, granting an 80 percent state reimbursement rate for new buildings.

But the one that got much of the praise was a change to the state’s base construction reimbursement rate that now includes the size of the district in calculating how much money the state will reimburse a district for upgrading and building its schools.

Under the new rules, the state’s reimbursement rate for new school construction in both Stamford and Norwalk will be 60 percent for the next 25 years, much higher than the 20 percent rate in Stamford and the 23 percent in Norwalk currently in place.

State funding for construction projects is based on a formula tied to a municipality’s wealth. In essence, the poorest municipalities in Connecticut get the highest reimbursement rates while wealthier communities receive a smaller reimbursement percentage.

The new framework will provide much more funding for Stamford’s ambitious master plan to build or expand four schools, including a potential new K-8 school in south Stamford, and make improvements to many others. The estimated cost to implement the full plan is more than $500 million over 12 years.

In Norwalk, where no new school has been built in 50 years, the story is about the same. Officials there are working on a 25-year school facilities plan that would cost about $500 million as well.

In a separate section of the bill, the reimbursement rate for a new Westhill High School was set at 80 percent. The cost of construction is estimated at $258 million, according to figures from the state’s Department of Administrative Services. At the 80 percent rate, Stamford would receive a contribution of roughly $206 million.

That’s a far cry from the 20 percent rate the state had agreed to pay late last year, which would have covered $51.6 million of the work.

The current 50-year-old Westhill High School has had a variety of problems, including water damage from leaky roofs, windows, doorways and the exterior. The plan is to build a new school on the same site and then demolish the existing building once the new one is complete.

Multiple schools in Stamford have dealt with mold issues in the past four years, with one school — Westover Magnet Elementary School — even shuttering for two years.

“Can you imagine coming to school every day and there’s mold, things are falling apart,” Miller said. “Now these students are going to be able to go to a good, healthy school.”

The last of the three items is an increase in funding for Norwalk High School, which was approved for 80 percent funding in 2020, but the cost of the project has since grown. State officials agreed to pay an increased amount to account for the growing price tag for the school.

After the news conference, Looney said the reason state legislators were able to approve the higher reimbursement rates for Norwalk and Stamford was due to the state’s current financial situation.

“The obstacles in the past were the huge deficits we were experiencing in the last 14 years or so,” he said. “We were in cuttingand-scaling-back mode rather than advancing. We recognized the need for some time, but we were finally able to meet it this year.”

He described this year’s state budget as a chance to “catch up” to the postponed spending.

“It’s a matter of equity here for both Stamford and Norwalk and we needed to get this done because these schools are so critical for the future of the state,” he said.

According to Miller, the idea to ask for a 60 percent reimbursement rate for both cities was the brainchild of Duff.

“I think Westhill is probably about in the same condition as our high school is, which is tired and old and really in need of a new facility and this is going to be so great for so many students over the years,” Duff said.

Among cities with a population of at least 80,000, Norwalk and Stamford’s reimbursement rate is well below that of other municipalities. Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury have rates that range from 67 to 70 percent. Danbury has a rate of 53 percent for new construction. “No community, especially urban communities in this state, can build new schools or renovate schools as new with a reimbursement rate that is so low,” Duff said.

He later added, “This will impact generations of students and give them the schools that they deserve and taxpayers will save hundreds of millions of dollars in each community and they will see their property values rise at the same time.”

Lucero spoke briefly during the event and at one point turned to Duff.

“Senator Duff, I don’t know you, but I love you,” she said.