Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
Appraisers will be scoping out Douglas Newton’s home, as the New Haven Board of Ed looks for a spot to build a long- delayed science magnet school across the West Haven border.
Newton (pictured) owns a single-family house at 38 Rockview St. in West Haven, just at the edge of the University of New Haven (UNH) campus.
His property sits on one of three sites that the New Haven school district is now checking out as it moves forward with a plan to build a permanent home for the Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS). ESUMS was dreamed up in 2005 as a joint effort between New Haven, West Haven and UNH to build the state’s first science-oriented public high school.
The plan has always been to build a home for ESUMS close to the UNH campus in West Haven so students can benefit from the proximity to university staff, students and facilities.
Since the school debuted in 2008, ESUMS students have been bouncing around swing spaces while the district looks for an appropriate spot for the school. Now the race is on: The district is hustling to break ground on the $66.5 new school by next spring, or risk possibly losing $9.5 million in state grants.
“We want to get the shovel in the ground by next April,” said schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark in a recent interview.
New Haven is taking the lead on the project, which will mean navigating West Haven zoning regulations and negotiating with property owners to acquire land for the site. The city of New Haven could buy the properties, or West Haven could take them by eminent domain.
The New Haven school board Monday night approved the next phase of a contract with Svigals + Partners architects to continue planning what the school will look like.
At the end of March, the board hired appraisers to scope out three possible sites (see map) for the school, all of them in West Haven near UNH.
The appraisal work has already begun, according to Clark.
Reached last week, Newton said he had heard rumors, but nothing more, about a project in his neighborhood. The rear of his home, which he’s owned since 2005, abuts the back of a UNH residential parking lot on the western edge of campus. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if the university decides to grow in his direction.
“They’re small over there,” he said.
Other property owners in the neighborhood said they’d heard nothing concrete from either New Haven’s school district or UNH.
Three Options
Newton’s home sits in what the New Haven school district is calling the “Alternate Rockview Site II,” a cluster of university properties and homes on the western edge of campus, south of the Boston Post Road.
The site comprises three homes at 34, 38 and 46 Rockview; a vacant lot at 22 Daytona St.; and UNH properties at 2, 4 and 14 Daytona and 3, 7 and 13 Waban St.
That includes a wild and weedy field (pictured) between the area near Newton’s house and the rest of campus.
The second site, the “Bowling Alley Site,” is the home of abandoned Hollow Bowling Center, a 1950s brick building north of the Boston Post Road, near the West Haven Board of Education. The site includes commercial buildings and vacant lots at 691 to 703 Orange Ave. and a single-family home at 89 Newbern St. Two of the properties are owned by a church named Rock Tabernacle Ministries.
The third site lies on the southern end of campus at 1092 Campbell Ave., atop a steep hill overlooking a shopping center.
UNH’s South Campus Hall at 1092 Campbell Ave.
Known as South Campus Hall, it’s a three-story, UNH-owned, 14,000-square-foot office building that was built in 1958. The building houses, among other offices, the university’s registrar; the university is offering it up for ESUMS.
Two North Haven-based appraisers, Arthur B. Estrada & Associates and Casper M. Amodio of Amodio Associates, have been hired to each give their own assessment of fair market value for the properties. Estrada’s charging $21,900 for the job; Amodio is charging $18,700.
Classroom Count Begins
Meanwhile, a New Haven architecture firm with experience with the mayor’s $1.7 billion school rebuilding program is drawing up what the school might look like.
On Monday, Board members voted without any discussion to approve a second phase of a contract with the Svigals + Partners to develop a plan for the school. Svigals was granted $75,000 for Phase I of the project, “planning and predesign.”
In Phase II, Svigals will meet with the new school principal, review the school’s curriculum, and assess the school’s needs.
The school now serves 226 students in grades 6 to 8; It is intended eventually to serve 616 students: 400 from New Haven, 125 from West Haven, and 91 from other towns.
Based on the school’s enrollment and academic focus, Svigals will begin to map out how many classrooms it will need for art, science and math.
There’s a fair amount of planning that can be done even without knowing where the school will be sited, Clark said. “Ultimately the building can be adjusted to fit a site.”
The cost of Phase II of the architects’ contract is for $80,000, bringing the total contract up to “not to exceed” $155,000.
The total cost for the project is projected at $66.5 million, of which the city would pay $4.2 million. The city already got state approval in June of 2008 for state funding to build a 112,567-square-foot ESUMS serving grades 6 to 12. The state will pay for 95 percent of the project, unless the state guidelines change.
ESUMS is one of 12 schools that the city needs to borrow more money to pay for; a request for a few hundred dollars for ESUMS is included in a capital projects request in mayor’s proposed FY2012 budget.
Clark said the appraisers should be done evaluating the three sites “in a month or so.”
UNH President Steven H. Kaplan said his university is ready to help move the project along.
UNH is “committed to continuing the strong partnership with the New Haven school system that has successfully launched the Engineering and Science University Magnet School,” Kaplan said in a written statement delivered by a spokesman.
“We are proud of the work to date that has engaged UNH faculty and students with a growing cohort of magnet school pupils from throughout the region.
“We are actively investigating appropriate sites for a permanent school in West Haven and look forward to continuing to build the success of the program.”
So far, the district hasn’t ruled out any of the three locations, Clark said.
In a recent interview, Newton said he hadn’t yet spotted the appraisers at his house. He said he wants to hear more about the project.
If university or New Haven school officials come calling, “we’ll listen,” he said.