Thomas MacMillan Photo
School deal negotiator Foskey-Cyrus wears a new sticker.
Clyburn (left) takes podium from Kimber (right).
By a unanimous vote Tuesday night, city zoners approved a controversial plan to tear down a vacant Newhallville school and put up a new three-story building in its place.
The approval — by the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) — came just a few hours after a rally and counter-rally outside the Dixwell Avenue school, which has become ground zero in a Newhallville power struggle between competing coalitions.
Charter school organization Achievement First (AF) is looking to buy the vacant Martin Luther King school from the city for $1.5 million, tear it down, and build a new charter high school in its place. The deal needs the approval of the Board of Aldermen.
Tuesday night’s vote clears the second-to-last hurdle for the plan. All that remains is Board of Aldermen approval of the deal; the next step in that process is a City Hall hearing this coming Monday night.
Newhallville Alderwomen Brenda Foskey-Cyrus and Delphine Clyburn have been working for months on the deal with AF as part of the still-unfinished approval process. They’ve held public meetings and are in the midst of final negotiations on a community benefits agreement dealing with local hiring, accepting local students, and opening the school to neighborhood use.
Meanwhile, the Greater New Haven Clergy Association has mounted a campaign of criticism. The group — whose founder, Rev. Boise Kimber, has bristled at not being included in the talks — claims its members were not informed about the negotiations. After initially praising Foskey-Cyrus and Clyburn for their handling of the process, the ministers are now attacking them and claiming the whole process has been conducted behind closed doors by unions and union-backed aldermen.
Kimber and others showed up last month at the BZA to ask for a delay in requested approvals for the construction project. AF submitted requests for special zoning exceptions allowing for a high school that’s taller, has fewer parking spaces, and more signage than otherwise allowed.
Kimber and his compatriots did not return Tuesday night, when the BZA voted unanimously to approve two of those three requests. The question of signs was denied without prejudice, which means AF may re-submit the request after including additional information sought by zoners.
Before the vote, BZA member Regina Winters noted with concern that a number of neighbors had said at the previous month’s meeting that they had been unaware of the school construction plans.
“I second that feeling,” said the BZA’s Victor Fasano. “They really could work harder to achieve rapport with the community.”
Fasano suggested that AF create a policy prohibiting its students from driving themselves to school, since neither the parking lot nor the neighborhood can accommodate the cars. That suggestion became a condition of approval, along with requirements that AF create parking and communication plans.
As for the denial of the signs request, zoners agreed that AF’s submission lacked sufficient detail on signage planned for the site.
Targets Crash Clergy Rally
Clyburn addresses crowd.
Earlier Tuesday, after Kimber and other ministers decried a lack of “transparency” in the sale the school, one of their targets stepped in and took their podium to speak out against ministers trying to “hijack this process.”
Those competing messages were delivered as the sun set Tuesday on the vacant Martin Luther King Schol at 580 Dixwell Ave.
On Tuesday, the clergy association convened a rally outside the school to announce their discovery of a number of of “potential conflicts” among aldermen. Click here to read a press release the group put out at the rally. Click here and here to read two accompanying fact sheets.
Aldermen were ready. Several showed up, joined by neighbors, wearing stickers that read “We are Newhallville.”
First the ministers spoke, as scheduled.
“We are not opposed to a school being built,” said James Newman, president of the clergy association. The problem is that people are “coming in and telling us what to do.”
Unions are looking to make decisions for the neighborhood, and the clergy are “not at the table,” he said.
In a press release distributed at the rally, Newman said, “The mystery behind all of the clandestine closed-to-the-public meetings is that the union funded Connecticut Center for a New Economy [CCNE] has been running the show since the summer.” In the release, Newman argued the aldermen, in conjunction with CCNE, are engaged in “a good old-fashioned stick up,” trying to shake down Amistad for $250,000 for “youth enrichment.” That money would be controlled by CCNE and other union-affiliated organizations, Newman states. CCNE negotiators also seek union representation for the new high school’s custodians and cafeteria workers.
Frank Jackson (pictured), a former local Community Management Team chair, said he is “concerned” by the lack of transparency and openness in the process.
“This is not about education. This is about economics now,” said Boise Kimber (pictured). “There must be transparency. … There are people that don’t even know a school is going to be built here.”
After Kimber finished speaking, he stepped back from the podium. The scheduled portion of the rally had finished.
But the event wasn’t over.
Seizing the opportunity, Clyburn stepped over from where she had been standing just a few feet away. She began to speak, putting the ministers in the awkward position of standing behind the woman they had been criticizing.
“Our community is excited about having a new school instead of a rundown building that nobody uses,” Clyburn said. “We are negotiating to make sure this development benefits the whole community.”
“All right, we can go,” Kimber announced, after a few moments of Clyburn’s remarks. At Kimber’s cue, the clergy association and supporters walked away as Clyburn continued speaking.
Her colleagues and neighbors moved in to stand behind her, along with members of CCNE, the not-for-profit labor-affiliated think tank and advocacy group that has been involved in negotiations on the school deal. Foskey-Cyrus was there, along with fellow Alderwomen Tyisha Walker, Jacqueline James, and Angela Russell. Like Clyburn, they were all elected to the board last fall with the help of CCNE-affiliated union activists; they brought a new team to power that uprooted Rev. Kimber’s political dominance of the neighborhood.
Clyburn went on to criticize the ministers for putting their “egos” before the good of the neighborhood.
Clyburn said the neighborhood has five demands of AF: spaces for local students, access to the building, diversification of teaching staff, a financial contribution to youth enrichment, good jobs in construction, food service, and custodial services.
Those demands came out of hours of public discussion involving hundreds of residents starting last summer, Clyburn said. Negotiations are now ongoing between “the people who put the most work” into the process, she said.
“Compared to past projects, this process has been very open and inclusive,” she said. “I am disappointed that some clergy are coming forward now to try to hijack this process. Shame on them for putting their political egos ahead of our community.”
“We will win for the people!” she concluded to applause.
CCNE’s Role
Renae Reese, director of CCNE, emailed this statement Wednesday morning:
“During the summer, the organizing committee members from Newhallville (called Newhallville Rising) approached the CT Center for a New Economy (CCNE) to be their partner in the process of negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with Achievement First. The reach out came because Achievement First indicated to Newhallville Rising that since they were an unincorporated group, Achievement First would not be able to sign a CBA with them but only with an incorporated organization. We have been at the table ever since. CCNE is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
“Some of the leaders of Newhallville Rising are also engaged in the launching of New Haven Rising, a citywide membership group focused on improving the quality of life for New Haven residents with regards to jobs, education, youth, housing, healthcare, immigrant and civil rights. New Haven Rising is still in its organizational phase and is not a part of this effort with Achievement First.
“Finally, since we expect millions of dollars of taxpayer money to be committed to the construction of the new high school, there is a question about whether that money would be part of the Community Benefits Agreement. The answer is no. The public money is only for the construction of the school.”