NHPS Spent $1.2M Fixing Up Still-Empty Office

A former school building in Wooster Square has yet to reopen as an administrative office building — even after two years and $1.2 million worth of renovations.

That still-in-the-works office space is located at 21 Wooster Pl. 

Up until 2018, the building was home to the alternative school New Light.

According to New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spokesperson Justin Harmon, that long-empty building is next slated to be used as office space by 20 employees from the district’s Office of Academics. 

Those employees used to work out of the eighth floor of NHPS’s central office building at 54 Meadow St. Harmon said that, at the recommendation of former Supt. Iline Tracey and the approval of the Board of Education, the district vacated that rented office space back in 2022.

These two years later, those staffers have yet to move into 21 Wooster. In the intervening years, while 21 Wooster’s renovations have dragged on, they instead have worked out of district office space at 54 Meadow, 130 Orchard St., and Clarence Rogers.

What’s with the delay?

Harmon said that the district’s former Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment and its former Chief Operating Officer identified 21 Wooster as the new office space for the Office of Academics, ​“but it required renovations.” During those renovations, contractors found asbestos.

The $1.2 million in renovations have covered over 4,000 square feet of space, and have included HVAC and all other electrical and mechanical upgrades. Those funds came from the American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds.

While the bulk of construction is complete, Harmon said, the district is fine-tuning the building’s security system before staffers establish offices there. 

Harmon explained that the move was intended to be a cost-saving measure, as rents on the eighth floor of 54 Meadow kept going up and up. In 2020 – 21, the last year NHPS paid rent for the eighth floor of 54 Meadow Street, it expended $102,342 according to Harmon. ​“Rents in the building increased 9 percent in the last budget cycle,” he said about 54 Meadow. He also said the district planned to move furniture from 54 Meadow to 21 Wooster, so that it did not have to buy new furniture for the renovated office space.

When asked why the district chose to invest more than $1 million of federal pandemic-relief aid in this office space while several schools have mechanical systems and building facilities in disrepair, Harmon responded, ​“When Dr. Tracey made the decision, the intention was to save on rent for the 8^th floor at 54 Meadow Street, which was upwards of $100,000 per year. I am quite sure she did not anticipate the full cost of the renovation at 21 Wooster.”

Harmon did not respond to the Independent’s questions about when the 20 staffers will move their offices to 21 Wooster Pl. He did confirm that, as of Monday, no staff have yet moved into the renovated site. 

According to Harmon, the total amount of ESSER funds spent on facility upgrades districtwide was $14,169,145. ​“The renovations at 21 Wooster Street totaled $1,204,753, which was 8.5% of the total,” he said.

He noted that additional school-related projects included boiler and mechanical engineering repairs at Hillhouse; districtwide architect design services at Sound School; districtwide air filter upgrades; districtwide HVAC repairs/chillers/cooling units at Martinez, Clinton, and Betsy Ross; districtwide on-call services for pool repairs at Career, Martinez, and Conte; PA-system upgrades; clock upgrades at Troup and Mauro Sheridan; door-lock upgrades at Hillhouse; water-heater upgrades at FAME, Fair Haven School, Davis, and East Rock; roof repairs at Hillhouse; and manufacturing program equipment for Hillhouse. 

Mayor Justin Elicker has also suggested that $5.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds leftover from the city’s last fiscal year budget be spent on school building maintenance. 

During a recent Board of Alders Education Committee meeting, Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller asked Supt. Madeline Negrón about the 21 Wooster Pl. renovation.

Negrón said that the project to create a unified administrative space at 21 Wooster Pl. was already underway when she arrived in July 2023. She said that, long term, the district aims to move its offices out of the Gateway Center at 54 Meadow St., where it currently rents out several office floors.

“Full transparency, I wanted to put a hold on it.” Negrón told the alders about the 21 Wooster renovations. ​“But the assessment would have been that if I would have put a hold on it, it would have lost money that had been already invested, so that project continued.”

Miller pushed the superintendent on the details of the renovations, including if the renovations included new floors, fancy finishing, and recently ordered desks and chairs. 

Negrón said she didn’t recall signing off on any purchases herself and had issued directions to not approve funding beyond what was originally allocated for the project. 

“Given the absolutely dire facility issues across the district,” Miller told the Independent, ​“every single facilities-related expense should have been really scrutinized by the Board of Ed.”

She concluded that she is not opposed to administrative office space, but with the high cost of renovations, the project ​“should have had [a] pretty substantive explanation attached.”

Truman Elementary School teacher Ashley Stockton also testified to alders about 21 Wooster Pl. at the Education Committee meeting. She said that she’s tried, without success, to see the building, and noticed its floor-to-ceiling glass windows and fancy shades.

But for Stockton’s students, the conditions could not be more different than the administrative building. She noted that Truman’s classroom windows don’t have shades, which forces teachers to move students around the classroom to keep the sun out of their eyes. They don’t have screens either, so teachers can’t open the windows. If they do, dirt from the metal recycling facility near the school wafts into the building.

Stockton told the Independent that in contrast to the new renovations at 21 Wooster Pl., she had seen unfulfilled work orders dating back six years at Truman. 

“I don’t feel confident about guardrails for spending. I don’t feel confident about the prioritization of kids and teachers and where our school budget is going,” Stockton said. ​“I heard the superintendent say she was not happy about 21 Wooster Pl., but as a taxpayer, as a parent at Wilbur Cross, as a teacher at Truman, I’m disgusted by it.”

The Independent reached out to multiple Board of Education members for comment for this story. None responded.