Duff defends ‘backing in’ new NHS as ‘political heat’ burns

NORWALK, Conn. — Political games are being played with the proposal to build a new Norwalk High School, Mayor Harry Rilling and Chief Financial Officer Henry Dachowitz said Monday.

Norwalk Public Schools’ refusal to put the request into their capital budget proposal was “very upsetting to us,” Dachowitz said to the Board of Estimate and Taxation. This, after Norwalk Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Thomas Hamilton told the Planning Commission last week that he expected Mayor Harry Rilling to add the school to the budget at the end of the process.

Much water has gone over the dam since State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-25) and other City leaders surprised Norwalk in December with the announcement that the City would build a new Norwalk High and take advantage of 80 percent reimbursement from the state. An anti-Duff faction has vocally tried to cast doubt while Rilling, Duff and others offer reassurances that current school projects will not fall to the wayside in favor of the high school construction.

Some question the reimbursement promise and decry a lack of transparency. They say the Board of Education was not informed, although Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski was part of the team that came up with the idea.

Others fear that what looks like a financial bargain with the state could come with hidden costs tantamount to sticking a toe – or perhaps a whole foot – into the murky waters of regionalization, though the school would only invite 200 students from out of town, 100 from Stamford or Bridgeport, and 100 from the smaller, wealthy communities that surround Norwalk.

Let’s review.

Reimbursement

Norwalk would qualify for 80 percent reimbursement by creating a pilot program to ease economic segregation, Duff said in December.

This has evolved to proposing that the nearby urban kids, from Stamford and Bridgeport, attend the P-Tech (Pathways to Technology) Academy and get a leg up on a lucrative career. The other 100 out-of-towners would attend the Arts Academy that Adamowski has been hoping to create at Norwalk High School. Konstantinos (Kosta) Diamantis, Director of the Connecticut Office of School Construction Grants & Review, pointed out in December that the State would prefer to regionalize expensive construction projects such as a black box theater.

Former Board of Education member Bryan Meek, a Republican who served as treasurer to Duff’s opponent in the last election, questions the 80 percent promise.

“New Lebanon school in Greenwich was promised 80% reimbursement and just recently closed out at 64%. A similar shortfall would cost Norwalk an additional $32 million and we’d get to pay 4% on that for an additional 20 years,” Meek wrote in a recent NancyOnNorwalk comment.

Former Mayoral candidate Lisa Brinton is also citing Greenwich in questioning the promise of State funding.

Greenwich Communications Director Sasha Houlihan explained the situation to NancyOnNorwalk.

“At the outset of the project, the school would’ve been eligible for up to 80% state reimbursement given the demographics of the school,” she wrote. “However, currently we’ve been reimbursed roughly 65%, as you mention below, because we did have expenses that fell outside of eligibility, for example going over the square footage allowance for eligible reimbursement. We suggest working directly with the state throughout your building process should you have questions about specific allowances and eligibility.”

Jim Giuliano of Construction Solutions Group, the city’s project manager for new school construction, and Norwalk Building and Facilities Manager Alan Lo have routinely discussed the ins and outs of school reimbursement from the state.

So how do the reimbursements work? Would Norwalk put up $225 million and then wait for the state to pay it back?

No.

“According to Tom Hamilton, districts file reimbursement requests with the State as work is underway on a project.  The State withholds 11% percent of each submission until the project is completed,” Norwalk Public Schools Communications Director Brenda Wilcox Williams wrote in an email.

‘Not your first rodeo’

Duff has been relatively quiet on the issue since December, but a Freedom of Information request originally submitted by Donna Smirniotopoulos got everyone talking.

NancyOnNorwalk also put in an FOI request.

Although Duff had promised at the December announcement that NHS would be on the school priority list, it’s not.

“After the grilling I willingly took last night, and the Mayor’s Statement read by Erica DePalma, it was very disappointing to see that the Norwalk High School project was not included on the State’s ‘Priority List’ today as promised,” Adamowski wrote to Duff on Dec. 13.

“What I believe is the case is that while NHS is not physically on the list, it is budgeted in the overall school construction number that Kosta just put out,” Duff replied.

Diamantis said Monday that he doesn’t know what Duff is referring to.

However, in a Dec. 14 email to Adamowski, he wrote, “Mr superintendent not your first rodeo and quite familiar with the process…. The plan always was to either one back it on {to the priority list} or two follow the process which you are on and simply have the senator file for reimbursement increase if it satisfies the new SDE commisssioners’ {cq}vision.”

Adamowski attended the discussions that began in May, Duff said at the December press conference.

The proposal has support from Gov. Ned Lamont, the Office of Policy and Management (OPM), DAS, Senate leadership and Norwalk House Democratic members, and “the project will then be backed on to the list once the governor signs the bill,” Duff said in his email. “If we did the state bill first, we would have to wait another year to be on the priority list (December 2020) and begin construction a year after that therefore increasing costs for the state/city. With everyone’s support that doesn’t make sense. (If there is confusion it may be because we kept going back and forth in the meetings if we would actually need legislation.)”

Duff claimed he mentioned “backing it onto the list” at the press conference; NancyOnNorwalk has no record of him saying it.

“State statutes are clear as are local rules,” Diamantis wrote to Adamowski. “We follow them all and for that reason we meet with all districts in advance to navigate the hurdles and issues as partners. The ‘grilling you took or I take as professionals in our field is part of the commitment we make to the children in this state and our responsibility to taxpayers. I see it your job to develope the program that meets the new commissioners vision the delegations vision to promote its merit if it warrants merit and {my job is} to build and· follow the rules .”

NHS FOI_Emails_mid Dec 2019 1.30.20

NHS email exchange 19-1215 Diamantis

‘Easier to back it onto the list’

The plan to back it onto the list was devised to get the project started quickly, Duff said Monday. This will save on costs.

“There’s not a lot on the school construction list, as far as costs go for the state this year,” Duff said.

The priority list was released in December and offers these statistics for “estimated grant obligations:”

• 2014/15: $724,819,100
• 2015/16: $307,877,737
• 2016/17: $505,697,620
• 2017/18: $315,404,596
• 2018/19: $418,035,720
• Jan. 2020: $209,152,199

Those are authorizations, except for this year’s figure, which is a proposal.

Kevin Coughlin, spokesman for Senate Democrats, recently provided NancyOnNorwalk with a list of payments that have gone out to cities and towns for school construction:

• 2014: $263,611,094
• 2015: $406,729,270
• 2016: $418,036,816
• 2017: $409,860,867
• 2018: $298,841,821
• 2019: $262,719,201

“It’s easier to back it onto the list,” Duff said Monday. “So that’s exactly what’s going to happen. So once the Board of Ed and the city do their part, and the state legislation is done, it’ll get put on physically put on the list though the money is reserved for the new Norwalk High School, already.”

Board of Education members are set to consider the education specifications (Ed Specs) Wednesday evening. Ed Specs are the first part of coming up with a design for a new school.

“Because of the fact that an 80 percent reimbursable doesn’t come along very often we thought that it was an opportunity to move this along quicker by backing it onto the list, provided that the Board of Ed and the City approve the plan, which is why the Mayor and the Superintendent were at all the meetings,” Duff said.

Duff said in December that meetings were held May 3, Aug. 29, Oct. 2 and Nov. 6.

The proposal also postulates a tuition swap with surrounding communities. Adamowski has said that he needs to talk to his counterparts in surrounding communities to see if they’re interested.

“It’s premature for those conversations, as the Ed Specs haven’t even been approved and submitted yet,” Wilcox Williams said on Feb. 5.

‘Purely political’

The new high school is not on Norwalk Public Schools’ capital budget request.

“They want it to be seen as the Mayor’s request only,” Dachowitz said Monday. “They were side by side with us with all of the meetings, whether they were here in Norwalk or up in Hartford. They stated they wanted the school, they stated it historically, they stated it on Friday when we met with them.”

Rilling said that he “called a timeout” in the discussion and asked Adamowski and Hamilton if they want a new Norwalk High School with a $50 million cost estimate now or would they rather wait five years and get a $250 million high school with 32 percent reimbursement.

“Both of them stated, ‘Absolutely, absolutely.’ They want to do Norwalk High School now. So I told them, ‘If you don’t, let me know and I’ll mention it publicly, that you don’t want the school.’”

Adamowski and Hamilton committed to going ahead, Dachowitz said.

“They’re doing one thing privately, and they’re saying something publicly, simply for political gain,” Dachowitz said. “And this disingenuousness was purely political for the Mayor to take any heat for the project and to disassociate the public schools from this joint program.”

On Tuesday, Dachowitz told Common Council members, “Look, I’m all for buying a $225 million school when someone’s paying me 175 for it. That’s smart. Wouldn’t do it if they don’t want it.”

Wilcox Williams released a reply:

“The Mayor has previously indicated that priority school renovation, repair and construction projects would not be impacted by the addition of a new Norwalk High.  In discussions that Dr. Adamowski and Tom Hamilton had with him last month while Mr. Dachowitz was away,  all agreed that it was premature to include the project before the Board had approved Ed Specs, and that once the Ed Specs, cost estimates and architectural drawings were ready, the Mayor would then add the project under his authority per the City Charter.

“As a result, we’re greatly puzzled by Mr. Dachowitz’s assertion that NPS has ‘refused’ to include it. But we’re confident that the Mayor will honor his prior commitment on this.”