Hoping the second time’s the charm, a school site selection panel Monday agreed to try again to convince the City Council to put a new school in the Scalia sand pit off Barlow Street.
The West Bristol School Building Committee unanimously agreed to pick the so-called “Scalia A” site for one of the two new kindergarten to eighth grade schools sought by educators.
With a heavy behind the scenes push to act quickly, councilors may vote on the suggestions in two weeks.
City Councilor Ken Cockayne, who serves on the school site selection panel, said he expects the suggested site to win approval this time around.
The other school is already targeted for construction next door to Greene-Hills Elementary School on Pine Street, at the former Crowley car dealership. Negotiations are underway to purchase the property from Crowley.
In choosing the Scalia site, the panel opted to brush aside calls to put the school on property bordered by Divinity and Park streets across from Rockwell Park.
Former Republican mayoral candidate Ken Johnson, who said he’d back the Scalia site if the committee picked it, urged the panel to “be bold and visionary” and consider the urban renewal value of picking the West End property instead.
He called the Scalia site “the path of least resistance” in urging panel members to seize the “tremendous opportunities” of picking the former IGA grocery store site on Divinity Street.
A school there, Johnson said, “would be more than a school.” He said it would tie in to Rockwell Park and serve as a community center long after the bell rings each day.
A number of residents spoke against the Park and Divinity streets site and a couple favored it.
But it was clear the panel had the Scalia site in mind all along.
Don Soucy, a Board of Finance member who serves on the site selection committee, said that he’s pretty good at counting votes and he could see that two or three council votes against the Scalia site in October were no longer there.
“It may happen this time,” he said.
Other potential sites that were given little attention this time around include the former Roberts property on Chippens Hill and the downtown mall property, which several panel members said they couldn’t pick because they knew the council would never support it.
The Board of Education has called for spending $115 million or more to build two new 900-student schools. When they open, four older schools would be shut down: Memorial Boulevard Middle School and three primary schools: Greene-Hills, O’Connell and Bingham.
A massive redistricting would be necessary when the change is made, though it’s likely at least a few years off.
The city is in the process of seeking architects to work out the details of both school projects.
Cockayne said that a school board appraisal pegged the value of the Scalia site at $1.5 million, making it a far less costly alternative than the West End site, which would require buying 35 privately owned pieces of property.
Johnson figured their appraised value for city tax purposes totaled about $4.8 million, making their market value somewhere between $5 million and $10 million.
Though Johnson said the cost difference amounted to “a flea on the back of the project” given its massive scope, Cockayne said that he couldn’t help paying attention to the cheaper price for the Scalia site.
He also said it offers the potential for expansion in the future, which could come in handy someday.
One drawback with the Scalia site is that every student going there would have to take a bus. Nobody could walk there, officials said.
Melanie Dumont, a panel member, said Scalia is potentially a great place for a school.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
34 comments:
There is nothing more humorous than a junior councilman acting as if he knows everything. I think he will (again) be embarassed by making the statement he made about the potential of the Scalia site.
ITS A GOOD SITE
Looks like Johnson is now a front man for Zoppo and O'Brien.
Also, the Scalia site doesn't create any activity for the Real Estate business.
The Scalia site was and is the right choice... FOR EDUCATION.
Did Ward and Nicastro ever make their findings on the Crowley property known?
Or was it all just campaign rhetoric?
The Scalia sight is useless for a school. It has no infrastructure...sidewalks, etc. Why would be want to bus in all the students in everyday? Yet another very long term cost to burden the taxpayers!! Are these people really thinking or is their more to it?.. i.e. the "good ole boy network" at its finest??
It's the pits.
Park & Divinity is still the best site, second only to that downtown parcel that was a mall.
Park and Divinity have the biggest bang for the buck, both education-wise and urban renewal wise, the Mall would be a good choice too as it would solve all the dilemma about what to do there and the farce of pretending retail will come to downtown. Scalia is not going to help salvage what is left of that neighborhood.
We citizens (taxpayers) haven't even voted on YES for the $115 million dollar school plan and yet this is being shoved down our throats!
Most students are bused, to address one comment, so we're not saving money there. I just wish they'd even ask the homeowners if they want to sell on Park. Most of those people are landlords anyway who don't live there. They're probably itching to dump those properties and we'd clean up an area that needs cleaning up badly.
well, I for one felt like cheering.
The scalia site is the best as a choice in the fact that one assessment, no open space replacement problems and no longtime residents forced out of longtime residences.
Wilsons letter, read at the meeting summed up the correct choice very nicely, I hope it comes back up when certain members on the council try to short change the park and divinity residents again.
also I am suggesting the immediate termination af all comments submitted under anonymous
John,
I can't verify anyone's identity but I could require that people register on Blogger or one of the other blog comment sites so they'd at least have to use a nickname. It still wouldn't mean that I would know who they are, but it would be something anyway. I'm contemplating that change.
So those of you who post might want to consider registering and getting a nickname that you can use here rather than anonymous.
8:47 poster, or should I say Craig Minor!
you should stop being so bitter that Cockayne isn't your lap dog like you expected!
Perhaps you can learn something!
We want a people to walk downtown yet the area offers no reason for it, yet we are going to bus every single student to a new school when the goal should be increasing foot traffic in the west end.
more evidence these leaders are clueless, they get an idea planted in their head and that's it.
the Scalia pit does nothing for the community besides offering a new mega school location.
We never seem to learn.
You can't necessarily solve a second problem while addressing the real issue.
Think back when the city, with the help of big government dollars, tried to solve the downtown issue back in the 50's and 60's.
We lost sight of what the real issue was and we are still paying for it.
The issue here is EDUCATION, Yesm EDUCATION.
Is this the best site for education, long term? That is or should be the main criteria.
We can still address the Park Street issue, less expensively, if the time pressure and big dollars are taken out of the equation.
We also have a committed group of interested citizens, from TWO administrations, that favor the Scalia site.
That should mean something.
Why does Johnson want to spend 7 million dollars more of our money and end up with a school facility divided by a major road?
And he wants to be our mayor?
The Scalia Pits ....
That makes sense for Bristol ....
Tunnel Blocking the traffic flow ....
Illegal drugs readily available ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"several panel members said they couldn’t pick because they knew the council would never support it."
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The West Bristol School Building Committee follows the city leadership and ignores what is best for education .
Don't ya' just luv' it ....
Hey, it's good for Scalia, since the company is done pillaging the neighborhood (AND Rockwell Park!) of all the sand it could reach. Now that it's a wasteland, it can be a school.
Winners:
the Scalia family, carpenters, school bus company, Pio and other slumlords who won't be forced to sell their property at a dropping market price, Tom O'Brian and his gang who want a shiny new megaschool and to give the BOE a big project, and school bullies
Losers:
kids, the majority of Bristol residents who favor neighborhood schools
"We citizens (taxpayers) haven't even voted on YES for the $115 million dollar school plan and yet this is being shoved down our throats!"
And you aren't going to. Bristol does not have a legal mechanism for citizens to vote on projects like this. Don't you understand that?
To the 8:11 AM poster:
#1. At 8:47 last night, Minor was at the Bristol democratic town committee meeting.
#2. Why would a democrat expect a republican to be a lap dog?
#3. Learn something from Cockayne? Now you're just being silly.
the sand pit is a poor choice.....
the option of bulldozing down the "slummy-looking" west end and redeveloping the area into a pedestrian-friendly, "green" development holds much more promise.
however, the politicians are looking for the easy way out, and hiding a new school building in a sand pit must be very palatable to them....
-billy from bristol
This is the most ridiculous argument string I have ever seen on this board. When you set out to solve a problem or a challenge the sure path to failure is by curing the symptoms but not the disease. The disease in this case being the BOE's misguided and half baked, school system de jour, plan to split the district in two with half k-8 and half k-5, middle school. This entire pile of garbage of a plan is what is driving poor planning, poor choices and is based on nothing more than conjecture that our schools will improve. Sorry folks but if we want to stop this train before it causes some very serious damage we need the mayor and council to find some intestinal fortitude and put the BOE on notice that this "dog just won't hunt." Please spare me the speeches on how this is not within the purview of the mayor's role. That's garbage. The mayor and the council control the purse strings and they can, without question control the BOE and this travesty of plan that they are trying to scam past the taxpayers. Time for the mayor and council to step up and get involved at much deeper level and not just be a superficial rubber stamp.
1.5 million for Scalia site buys you the sidewalk rights,Best of luck convincing the Scalia's on this proposal, don't hold your breath.
BOE needs a lesson along with this committee the pits are not the place for the school.
Fram a Gravel Extractory to an Education Factory. I love this country.
No road access, no sidewalks, no sewers, no problem!
A huge hole we can pour money into!
Yipppeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey ..... I really don't see a problem acquiring the land for the mega school @ the pine/divinity site .
Merely get in touch with the evil bus-turd that City Hall has tearing down all the homes around the library while the owners are @ work .
Doubting Democrat, The council does NOT control the purse strings. The finance board does, as you would have seen when it came to trying to get a recreation area built on Robert's and it was turned down and not funded by the Finance Board. Secondly, you need to educate yourself on the proposal before knocking it down. I truly don't believe you understand it otherwise you would see that we do need new schools. I'm not happy about the price tag, but it's either now or later and it'll cost a whole heck of a lot more later than it will now. People have a hard time with change around here and I believe that's what this is really about. I also believe it's a small minority that doesn't want the schools, but they're pretty vocal about it so it seems like a large group. In fact, I think most people couldn't care less and then you have a minority who want it and another minority who don't.
West end BIG TIME DRUG LOCATION
The only vote that the taxpayers currenly have on the scholl project is at election time when they elect BOE, Mayor, Council.
They spoke last fall.
Hey - every kid deserves a sand box.
Anon @ 6:08 I fully understand the financial process. The Finance Board is the first gate. They can approve and it can still be shot down by the Council. Ultimately the Council controls. Second, I am not against new schools. What I have a problem with is the BOE's plan to convert only half of our educational district into k-8 on the basis that it is a superior educational methodology to k-5, middle school. If it is so superior than why not convert the entire district? When questioned by councilman Nicastro regarding the proposed change in the system, BOE member Tom O'Brien did not even hesitate to say that this change is for all intents and purposes an experiment. The larger the school the larger the land requirement. Go to the state department of education web site and explore the information. Thus we are left with few choices and a very large price tag. Why? So the BOE can come back to the taxpayers in 10 years and say "oops we were wrong, neighborhood schools are the superior method." The education process is everyone's responsibility. Not just the BOE. This political garbage of drawing false walls around the decision process is promulgated by politicians (and their supporters) too weak to engage in the fight. To Anon @ 7:28 - The election of the BOE was and is a sham. They were hand picked by the political parties. They did no campaigning and if you look past your nose and analyze the numbers you will see that a significant percentage of those voting in the election did not cast a vote or all of their possible votes for BOE. Translated, many voters abstained in protest since they recognized they had no way of affecting the outcome.
Pick the West End and Ward and Morin will be in their glory displacing people.
And, the landlords will make all the money (Real Estate Agents too)
Doubting Democrat,
I don't believe for one second the people didn't vote for the BOE because of who was there. They didn't vote for them, because they have no clue who they are and couldn't care less! Let's be real about it. The majority of those who are not politically connected had no opinion on the BOE candidates and just left the box alone or picked a name that sounded good to them. That's, unfortunately, how it went. We are talking about a lot of people who are clueless as to who the candidates are and don't want to take the time to find out. That's why we have the exact same BOE, sans a few members, as we did before the election.
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