Schools

Inland Wetlands Panel Delays Decision on CREC Magnet School Application

Commission will revisit the proposal at its Sept. 6 meeting.

The application process for rebuilding the Reggio Magnet School of the Arts at 59 Waterville Road may take at least two months longer than the Capitol Region Education Council planned.

The Inland Wetlands Commission decided to revisit the application for the proposed 435-student pre-kindergarten to fifth grade school at its  Sept. 6 meeting at 7 p.m. There are no scheduled meetings in August for inland wetlands, and Avon Assistant Zoning Enforcement Officer John McCahill said it is unlikely a special meeting will be called because staff and commission members may be on vacation.

Commission members and McCahill asked for more time to review education council responses to McCahill's questions about wetlands issues because the education council submitted its answers Tuesday night.

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"There was a concern tonight, obviously, with the fact that their responses came in tonight, versus sometime earlier," McCahill said. "The standard recommendation is seven days in advance of the meeting."

The wetlands area in question is by the intersection of Waterville and Avonwood roads, and the commission is required to review any building activity proposed within 100 feet of wetlands, he said. Some of the parking lot and landscaping improvements for the proposed magnet school site are on the corner close to the wetlands area.

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“It’s a small area which is predominantly drainage from some outlet pipes that discharge to the north," McCahill said. "And there’s another open channel for some distance," between 25 to 40 feet, "that’s determined to be wetlands, based on the soil scientist that was here tonight."

While the education council, as the applicant, was given the option of overriding the extension request and forcing the commission to vote Tuesday, John A. Mena, division director of the education council's school construction division, asked for the extension so the commission could make a more informed decision.

“I think they would have denied the application if I had forced them to make a decision," Mena said. "....Tonight was unexpected for me."

The education council was expecting approval from inland wetlands Tuesday so that the Planning and Zoning Commission would be authorized to vote on the site plan at its July 19 meeting. McCahill said that planning and zoning is required by state statute to wait to act until wetlands approval is granted in the form of a report or written statement from inland wetlands.

Mena said that the education council had previously considered the planning and zoning side of the application to be the biggest challenge  because "individuals have voiced their concerns that they don’t want the school."

“We were hoping by this month to get through the major hurdles. After that it was the regular process,” Mena said. "We need to break ground by March of next year in order to make our deadline of the school opening in August 2013.... Depending on how things go if things get approved, there is the possibility that we can recuperate the time."

Mena said that the Reggio program is currently split at two schools, one on 150 Fisher Drive and the other at a small site just outside of Avon in Simsbury.

"The program is growing so it’s going to reach its capacity in the place where it’s at before it can get to the new building," Mena said. "But if we’re delayed with the groundbreaking, we’re just going to have a problem. The state’s going to have a problem.”

If the proposal to build a school that can accomodate up to 450 students is not approved, another solution would to be to build a third smaller school to fit the growing program, Mena said.

"We would need to ask the state for more funding," he said.

The education council is "an agent of the state," he said, rather than a private enterprise that would profit off of the school development.

"If it’s all approved, we would just have to move on with the site that we are," Mena said. "We would have to find another way to remediate the other issues we have. And it’s not really our issues, they become state of Connecticut's issues."

In the July 9, 1996 Sheff versus O'Neill case, an arguement was made that "students in the Hartford public schools were racially, ethnically and economically isolated and that, as a result, Hartford public school students had not been provided a substantially equal educational opportunity under the state constitution, article eighth," according to the state judicial website.

While the Connecticut Supreme Court acknowledged that racial and ethnic segregation was not intended in the state, the court ruled that the creation of local school districts in 1909 "was the most important factor contributing to the concentration of racial and ethnic minorities in Hartford" and that "poverty, not race or ethnicity, is the principal causal factor in the lower educational achievement of Hartford students."

The court further said that school districts can reduce "racial, ethnic and economic isolation" by using "interdistrict magnet school programs," "charter schools,"  "interdistrict" programs and projects, "interdistrict public school choice programs," "minority staff recruitment," "distance learning through the use of technology" and "any other experience that increases awareness of the diversity of individuals and cultures."

By offering the Reggio program, the education council is helping the state uphold the Sheff ruling, according to Mena.

"We’re here to help the state deal with their court case," Mena said. "It’s the state and we’re all taxpayers, so if you hurt the state somehow, you’re only hurting yourself. That’s something I don’t know if people understand or don’t understand."

Failure of local districts to offer "one or all of the 'educational interests of the State," could result in the "loss of state educational funding" and the "State Department of Education can initiate litigation to enforce the state's educational interests," according to the case ruling.

There are no plans at this time to seek another site, regardless of the delay, as long as the applications are approved, according to Mena.

If inland wetlands approves the application on Sept. 6, the earliest the Planning and Zoning Commission can vote on the education council's site plan is the same evening at 7:30 p.m.

"I would think the issue should be resolved by September so that they can act comfortably on the application, but that’s notwithstanding any other possible issues," McCahill said.

The next Planning and Zoning Commission meeting is on Sept. 27, beyond that. Both meetings are scheduled to be held in Town Hall, Building One.


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