Copyright Hartford Courant
Nearly 10 months after part of Bristol’s Edgewood School roof collapsed, uncertainty about whether to repair the building has become an issue in one of the city’s hardest political campaigns in years. The finance board will decide Tuesday evening whether to authorize a major renovation, but the details are largely overshadowed by pre-Election Day rhetoric in the long-running divide between Mayor Jeff Caggiano and the Democratic leadership of the school board. Local Democrats are slamming Caggiano as uncaring, Republicans are painting school board Chair Shelby Pons as incompetent, and each side is accusing the other of dishonesty. “Shelby Pons has proven her ignorance about the burden she has placed on the taxpaying citizens of Bristol with her insatiable desire to spend taxpayer dollars,” local GOP activist and former town chairman Art Mocabee posted on his Facebook page over the weekend. “Worse than that she expects the Board of Finance to entrust at least another $6 million to a project she botched in the first place.” Democratic Town Chairman Michael Nicastro was equally rough, countering in a recent memo “Mayor Jeff Caggiano is out there trying to lie his way back into office. Under his watch roofs at Bristol Central, Bristol Eastern, and Edgewood Pre-K are literally falling apart. Make your voice heard. Kick Jeff Caggiano to the curb.” The Edgewood question is part of a bigger dispute over education funding in Bristol, with Democrats complaining that Caggiano’s administration shortchanges the schools each year while Republicans contend the board mismanages money and creates deficits by overspending. At question Tuesday night is whether the city will pursue state reimbursement for a roughly $29 million plan to entirely renovate Edgewood as new. Plumbing, heating, electrical and other systems would be replaced along with an extensive modernization. Until last February the former elementary school served nearly 340 pupils who attend morning or afternoon pre-kindergarten. But snow caused part of the roof to cave in, and the operation was shifted briefly to the senior center before relocating to the Giamatti Center. It’s still there now, and is expected to remain for at least two years. The Edgewood building was already on a school system list for $16 million in upgrades, with the city expecting to pay $5 million and the state covering $11 million. “Since then, new state priority funding became available — up to an additional 30% for schools serving pre-kindergarten and special education students. To take advantage, the Board of Finance must approve changing the project from a ‘targeted renovation’ to a ‘renovate-to-new’ plan, fully replacing the roof and modernizing the building at no extra cost to the city,” Pons wrote. The state would cover 85% to as much as 99% of the more ambitious project’s projected pricetag of about $29 million. She said all nearby schools are at or above capacity, so moving permantently isn’t an option. “Despite this, Mayor Caggiano has pressured the Board of Education to return the building to the city for potential sale to developers,” she wrote. But Caggiano disputes that account entirely. No school renovation project ever gets more than 90% reimbursement, he said, and it’s no bargain to get more state aid just to rebuild a school the city may not need. “We’ve had a feasibility study that reports an 11,000-plus student capacity in our schools. We have 7,700 enrolled. Why do we need this school?,” he asked. “The need is technically going down.” Caggiano acknowledged the school board wants to seek state funding in the current cycle of applications, but said he believes the project could be delayed a year until the schools present more information. He particularly wants a study of whether the kindergarten-to-eighth-grade buildings could house the pre-kindergarten operation, or whether Stafford School could be closed to accommodate it. Caggiano also rejected Pons’ accusation of pressure. “I suggested that if we use Stafford instead and we’re not going to renovate Edgewood, it would make a great redevelopment parcel,” he said. “That was a suggestion. Not pressure. Pressure is a very strong word; I don’t have the authority to pressure them.”
