School rebuilding plan on hold due to pandemic
STAMFORD — At the last Board of Education meeting, members discussed how time was of the essence in determining which city school buildings to rebuild.
Since then, the spread of the respiratory virus COVID-19 has completely altered everyday life in the city and across the country. It has led to Stamford Public Schools being closed and public meetings being placed on hold.
Suddenly deciding on new school buildings wasn’t as urgent as it was before.
Board member Mike Altamura said he was not sure what the next steps would be in the school rebuilding plan. He said there’s been little communication for the board since schools closed on March 13.
“Basically, we have no communication,” he said. “I’m in the dark.”
What that means for the school district going forward, as with many things in these precedentsetting times, is unclear.
Schools Superintendent Tamu Lucero said the directive from the city is that the school board should only meet if a decision needs to be made immediately. Because the board was not going to address any urgent topics at its regular meeting on March 24, that meeting was canceled.
Lucero is hoping to re-start school building discussions next month. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for April 28.
Five schools — Toquam Magnet Elementary School, Hart Elementary School, Roxbury Elementary School, Cloonan Middle School and Westhill High School — have been identified as needing to be rebuilt. But board members are now faced with a decision on
which school to do first.
“I will continue to think about that and make recommendations for moving forward with suggestions for those five schools,” Lucero said.
City legislators in early March effectively killed a controversial plan to turn ownership and maintenance of new schools over to a developer who would be hired to build them. The Board of Representatives voted to reject an appropriation of $250,000 to hire a consultant to evaluate proposals from builders.
That set back administrators who were behind the plan, who found themselves having to come up with a new way forward for the schools. The pandemic appears to have set them back further.
A motion approved earlier this month by the Board of Representatives allows the city to hire a consultant for no more than $80,000 to study Stamford’s school construction and maintenance performance relative to surrounding areas, as well as develop a facilities plan.
Part of that study could include an assessment of school buildings, which board members could then use to decide which school buildings are in most need of a rebuild, and prioritize which one to tackle first.
But there’s the possibility that the schools decide to put out a different, more detailed, proposal just to assess schools. If under $100,000, it could be executed directly by Lucero.
Board member Nicola Tarzia said the board could conduct a video conference meeting to discuss such topics and take votes.
He said one possibility is the board granting Lucero temporary powers to approve certain items, such as contracts over $100,000, without a board vote, as a way to run the school system efficiently while large public gatherings are banned and the work of the board is limited.
“The board can’t meet and we want to continue the process of maintaining our schools and running the school district,” he said.