Debra Lombard Photo
When it came time to empty out the East Rock Global Magnet School, the furniture was not worth saving.
That’s the explanation a schools spokeswoman gave after an Independent reader spotted three Dumpsters full of desks and chairs outside the Nash Street school last week.
The school, built in 1973, is being readied for demolition this summer. The dreary concrete bunker is due to be reopened in August 2012 with a new, light-filled design by Newman Architects. It will be one of the final city schools to be rebuilt under the mayor’s $1.5 billion school reconstruction program.
Gilbane, Inc. is overseeing the move-out process, according to Michelle Wade, the school district spokeswoman.
Independent reader Debra Lombard, a consultant in sustainability and co-founder of New Haven Green Drinks, spotted the stuff in the trash Wednesday morning.
“UNBELIEVABLE!” she wrote. “How Did This Happen???? Does no one care?”
Lombard sits on the East Rock School Based Advisory Committee. She said she contacted the school district and Gilbane about the dumping. She gave them a contact at UrbanMiners in Hamden, which could help salvage the building materials and furniture. Instead, the furniture was thrown out.
Debra Lombard Photo
Wade said the furniture was offered to other schools and to non-profits, but “no one wanted to take it.”
A list of the groups who were offered the furniture was not available. Wade said most of it is “second- or third-hand,” and not very desirable.
She outlined the process the district uses for emptying out schools.
When a school gets torn down and rebuilt, it gets all new furniture, Wade said.
The mayor’s effort to rebuild every city school began in 1995. In the early days, Wade said, old furniture would be offered to the schools that had not yet been rebuilt through a “tag sale.” Representatives from other schools would come into the building, scope out the goods, and “tag” the pieces they wanted.
Now the rebuilding program is nearing the end. At least 35 schools have been rebuilt. Two more — Davis Street and Roberto Clemente — are due to open next fall. That leaves fewer schools seeking secondhand furniture, Wade said.
For the past few school construction projects, Gilbane has just contacted the schools that have yet to be rebuilt to see if they want the furniture, Wade said.
“Most schools have not been requesting the secondhand stuff,” she said.
Wade said Gilbane typically offers used furniture to non-profits with whom the district has a relationship, but does not offer it publicly. The furniture — lockers, kid-sized chairs, desks — is of limited interest to any group that doesn’t service kids, she noted.
At this point, the furniture at the East Rock school was “pretty well used,” Wade said.
“There’s not an awful lot that is good enough that someone would want.”