A group of Newhallville clergy issued a statement Tuesday crediting their alderwoman, Brenda Foskey-Cyrus, for pushing for firm neighborhood guarantees in a proposed deal to sell the abandoned Martin Luther King School on Dixwell Avenue to the Achievement First charter organization.
Achievement First would raze the building and erect a new home for Amistad High School under the $1.5 million deal.
Foskey-Cyrus and fellow Newhallville Alderwoman Delphine Clyburn had shepherded community negotiations on a “community benefits” package with Achievement First as part of the approval process. As they approached closure on that package, they also shepherded the overall deal through city approvals.
That changed Monday night. Foskey-Cyrus led the Board of Aldermen to put brakes on approving the overall deal until final details could be ironed out on the community benefits deal. Those details included promises to hire local people for jobs and to hold open enrollment slots for local kids; and the purchase price, which is based on an appraisal presented by Achievement First, not on a higher appraisal done by the city. Read about Monday night’s change of plans here.
Newhallville ministers had joined the public debate recently by calling for a firmer and better community benefits package than was on the table. Those same ministers issued Tuesday’s statement praising Foskey-Cyrus for pushing for a “transparent” process and focusing on those three main issues.
Meanwhile, Achievement First reportedly moved to up the ante in return: It is considering alternative sites for the school, according to a story by the New Haven Register’s Shahid Abdul-Karin.
The ministers’ statement, issued by Greater New Haven Clergy Association President Rev. James W. Newman III, suggested a community benefits agreement also require:
“1. [that] as a result of the request for reduced parking, Achievement First would agree to pay for permit parking for the next 30 years for all residents on streets bordering the school;
” 2. … use of the school parking facilities on evening and weekends for community groups and businesses in the area;
“3. stylish and neighborhood friendly garbage receptacles on the site;
“4. guarantees that lighting as a result of the size and placement of the school will not interfere with the peace and tranquility of the neighbors;
“5. guarantees that school activities, particularly after school, will be scheduled, monitored and supervised as to not interfere with the peace and tranquility of the neighbors;
“6. all immediate properties be offered privacy fences;
“7. a written plan as to how the use of the proposed sports field and community room is managed.”
“As we have stated throughout this process, we do not oppose the development and construction of a new school at the current MLK site, or even the purchase of a public school by the private school company Achievement First. We understand that the city will get an infusion of cash to lower its growing budget deficit, and that the school will get an opportunity to grow its ever expanding fledgling high school, and we have no intention of interfering with those goals,” Newman wrote.
“Our goal was and still is to make sure that the communities of Dixwell and Newhallville, to which some of us belong, and where many of our congregates reside, were represented in this process. Our questions remain the same, who are at the table and what is being discussed?”
Click here to read the full statement.