‘GAME CHANGER’
Stamford schools to get millions more in state aid, including $200M for new Westhill High
STAMFORD — Finding funding for a new Westhill High School seemed far from a sure thing a few months ago, but recently passed state legislation comes with a boatload of money to help the cause.
And that's not the only good news for city and school officials.
Among the long list of provisions in a recently passed state budget bill is another item that sets the reimbursement rate from the state for new school construction in Stamford at 60 percent, much higher than the 20 percent rate currently in place.
The new framework will provide much more funding for the city's ambitious master plan to construct 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.
“It is something that will definitely be a game changer,” said Board of Education president Jackie Heftman, about the 60 percent rate. “We will be able to move forward on projects that were either not going to happen, or take years and years and years.”
In a separate section of the recently passed budgetary 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.
Heftman said the assumption that the city would receive a reimbursement rate of 80 percent or more for Westhill was viewed as a long shot, but “something we absolutely had to do.”
She said Superintendent Tamu Lucero and state Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, DStamford, were instrumental in getting the
“We will be able to move forward on projects that were either not going to happen, or take years and years and years.” Stamford Board of Education President Jackie Heftman
state legislature to agree to fund the high school project at a higher number and said both should be “incredibly congratulated” for the achievement.
Getting more state dollars for school projects is something Mayor Caroline Simmons campaigned on. A former member of the Stamford legislative delegation as a state representative, Simmons has advocated for increasing state aid for Stamford school projects.
Back in March, she said Stamford's delegation was working on special legislation to get Westhill's reimbursement rate as high as 95 percent.
“So we're very hopeful that we can get that, and we're going to be advocating strongly this session — we already have been, but continuing to advocate for that funding,” she said, in March.
At the same time, she said officials were pushing for bumping up Stamford's rate.
“Instead of having to go up every year to advocate for that increase to 80 percent funding, we're hoping to change the formula this session to get Stamford higher than that 20 percent reimbursement because we have so many needs,” she said, at the start of the legislative session. “We're now the second-largest city. We have significant needs at our schools. And so we're going to work to change that formula permanently this session.”
State funding for construction projects is based on a formula which is 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.
Before the aforementioned budget provisions were signed by Gov. Ned Lamont late last week, Stamford's percentage of reimbursement was set at 30 percent for general construction and 20 percent for new construction. The state's formula is set up to offer 10 percentage points less funding for all cities and towns for new construction, as opposed to renovation projects.
By comparison, in Bridgeport, which has one of the highest poverty rates in Connecticut, the state pays for 79 percent of general construction and 69 percent of new buildings.
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.
Stamford school officials had discussed using special legislation to acquire more state funding for Westhill, using a blueprint that worked for Norwalk Public Schools for a new high school. Norwalk school officials were able to get 80 percent funding, well above the city's normal rate of 23 percent for new construction.
But Norwalk representatives got that amount after filing for special legislation emphasizing the school's regional program.
That's the same route Stamford officials took with Westhill, when Lucero met with state representatives to discuss opening up enrollment for the district's planned “Pathway to Career” program, designed to help students entering the workforce.
The plan worked, as the language approved in the state's budget specifically states the Westhill project will be funded at 80 percent if the career program is established and “enrolls students from, and shares services with, surrounding towns to reduce racial isolation in the community.”
During the same session in which the Westhill project was submitted to the state, Stamford administrators also sought state funding for a preschool program to be housed at 83 Lockwood Ave. for a cost of roughly $51 million. The state agreed to pay for 20 percent of the work, but that project has since been withdrawn.