Staff, Parents, and Community Members:
Since the inception of the Mold Task Force back in October 29, 2018, we have been focused on the immediate urgent needs in our school facilities. All the while, we have committed to addressing the bigger long-term challenge, which is that our current traditional model of facilities operations is not serving our community well. At last Thursday night’s Board of Finance meeting, the Director of Administration shared a creative proposal for a long-term facilities plan. The cornerstone of this plan is a partnership with the private sector to leverage their strengths with what we do best in order to provide quality facilities for our students and teachers. While we have been working on this plan for a year now, there are many moving pieces, which is why we waited until now to share this proposal. I am excited to share a different vision for our schools and I hope each of you recognize the need for thinking beyond our traditional approach and can support us on this front.
The plan shared involves building a new school for Cloonan and Roxbury on the current Cloonan campus, building a new school for Hart on Hart’s current campus, building a new school for Toquam in the South End, creating a joint early childhood center for CLC and APPLES Pre-K programs, and building a new school for Westhill on the current Westhill campus. Cloonan and Hart will relocate to swing space at 1 Elmcroft during construction. Westover, currently at 1 Elmcroft, will return to its Stillwater Avenue location. The plan also calls for Westhill to use 800 Long Ridge as swing space when it becomes available.
Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing the details with the City Boards, who will ultimately need to vote on the plan before any decisions are final. We anticipate that there could be adjustments as we receive feedback from all parties. With that said, this is an exciting opportunity for Stamford Public Schools.
The Long-Term Facilities plan will be shared again tonight at the BOE Operations Committee meeting at 6:30 p.m. on the fifth floor of the Government Center in the Board Room.
As we continue to visit different Boards, it is our intent to schedule parent, staff, and community meetings to answer questions about the long-term facilities concept.
Sincerely,
Dr. Tamu Lucero
Superintendent of Schools
Superintendent of Schools