Leaders call out Bassick High School decision

 

 BRIDGEPORT REPORT

 

 

By Reginald Johnson

 

 

   BRIDGEPORT --- Months after city officials quietly decided to locate the new Bassick High School next to the University of Bridgeport, there are rumblings of discontent.

     A group of community leaders are asking why there was a sudden change to move the new high school from a previously discussed open space location on State Street to property at UB, which includes the university soccer field and several dorms.

   Though they don’t have proof, members of the group also think that Mayor Joseph P. Ganim was secretly involved in the decision to move Bassick to the UB site, instead of the parcel on State Street, where the Harvey Hubbell factory once stood.

  If so, they say, Ganim is in a conflict since he sits on the University of Bridgeport board in addition to being the city’s chief executive officer.

 “The Bassick location was going to be on State Street on the old Hubbell factory site but all of a sudden there was a change and they went to UB,” said the Rev. D. Stanley Lord, president of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP.  “They won’t give a real reason … (Hubbell) was the site and two weeks later it was UB.”

  “This whole deal stinks and it stinks of the mayor --- because the mayor sits on the board of UB so it’s all a conflict of interest. The attorneys involved work for the city and have ties with UB. They’re all in a conflict of interest,” said Lord.

 Ganim could not be reached for comment on Lord’s comments or on the Bassick decision-making process.

  Lord and others in the group --- which includes a state senator and some city council members --- say they also want answers on the nature of the transaction where the city paid $6 million for the UB property. The School Building Committee, a subcommittee of the city council,  approved of the payment by the city to UB, but the deed of sale shows that the land was conveyed by UB to the city for one dollar, not $6 million.

  “We paid $6 million for it but the deed says it was gifted for one dollar. How does that happen?” asked Lord.

   When asked why the deed of sale said $1 as opposed to $6 million, John Weldon, chairman of the Board of Education and a member of the School Building Committee, said: “I wasn’t aware of that, no. I can’t speak to what the rationale would be for that, it’s just more like a legalese question. I’m sure there’s a rationale, I just don’t know what it is.”

  Weldon was asked whether the mayor was involved in any of the decision-making on locating the new high school at UB. “I don’t believe so, no,” he answered.

   “My understanding is that OPED  (the city Office of Planning and Economic Development) was really in the trenches doing the legwork, negotiating with the University, doing the surveys, the appraisals and all that stuff. It was strictly a business transaction on the city’s end,” he said.

  Plans call for the new high school to be built on a site on Broad and Lafayette Streets, just off Seaside Park in the South End, at a cost of $115 million. The area now includes the UB soccer field and a number of university dorms. Three of the dorms --- Bodine, North and South Halls would be torn down to make space for the 200,000 square-foot facility.

  

One of the UB dorms that will be demolished to make way for the new Bassick High School

   Prior to last summer’s decision to place the high school at UB, there were years of public discussion about what to do with the currrent Bassick high school on Fairfield Avenue, which was deemed out-of-date and inadequate. Some felt the present building, which has historic qualities, should be rehabilitated and saved. Others thought the building should be torn down and a new facility built there.

  Later the focus turned to possibly building it on the Hubbell site, not far away in the West End. The city began negotiating with the owner on a purchase and that’s where matters stood early last year.

  Then apparently the idea of going to UB came up. The proposal was not publicly aired. The School Building Committee, meeting in closed session, approved the UB plan and site acquisition in July.

  State Sen. Dennis Bradley, D-Bridgeport, who was previously on the Board of Education, sat through many of the discussions on Bassick and said he’s not happy with the city’s decision and the way it was arrived at.

  “We had meetings until 2 and 3 in the morning debating those issues...after community input we come to find out in the ninth hour that the city of Bridgeport building department committee has switched the location to the UB campus, spend whatever, another $7 or $8 million to buy the property, when God knows how much property the city already has the tax rolls that’s owned by the city of Bridgeport that’s just simply been foreclosed on and nobody wants it.” Bradley said.

  “This is the stuff that just blows everybody’s mind away and everyone is saying Bridgeport is a lost cause,” Bradley said. “I mean all these deals behind the scenes throwing away community input and not doing things transparently.”

  The decision to place Bassick at UB came up as the financially-troubled university is about to be taken over by East-Hartford-based Goodwin University. Goodwin is spending about $52 million on the acquisition. Goodwin is obtaining financing from Citizens Bank, which has also agreed to write off $30 million in UB’s debt, according to the Connecticut Post.

 Paier College, an art school now in Hamden, will be part of the new university at UB.

   Rev. Lord, Bradley and city council members like Jorge Cruz have also been voicing concerns about the Goodwin deal, saying it may not be the best option for saving UB.  They doubt that Goodwin ---- known primarily as a two-year college offering associate degrees --- is up to the job of taking over the better-established University of Bridgeport, a four-year institution.

 There’s also suspicion about Goodwin’s intentions in taking over UB. Rev. Lord and Cruz both claim that Goodwin is really interested in acquiring valuable real estate on Long Island Sound, and then turning a profit by selling it for high-priced housing development.

  Cruz, who represents the South End, has said repeatedly that the Goodwin takeover will spur gentrification in the neighborhood and price out many minorities.

   But Mark Scheinberg, the president of Goodwin has strongly rejected those claims. “There is nothing that would ever, ever suggest that what we’re doing down there is a land grab,” he said. “We're such good community members.”

   Scheinberg said the merger is going to be a positive development for both the city and the South End. “This is such a win for Bridgeport, and because it is our mission, a win for us, too,” he said.

   Weldon said that contrary to what was widely believed, there had been no definite decision made to locate Bassick at the Harvey Hubbell site.

   “Actually a decision had not been made with respect to Hubbell. It was still in negotiation and there was a lot of back-and-forth going on at that time. While that was going on, the opportunity arose to take a look at the easternmost part of the UB campus in the Broad Street area and the city evaluated it,” he said.

A big factor in city officials deciding to go with the UB location was that the State Street site was contaminated and would need cleanup. With the purchase price for the two properties about the same, and considering the beauty of the UB parcel near Seaside Park, the decision about where to locate the high school became a “no-brainer,” said Weldon.

  The school board chairman said flooding concerns in the area are going to be resolved by the federal “Resilient Bridgeport” project so flooding will not be a problem with the new facility.

   There were no community meetings to discuss the Bassick-UB project before the decision to buy the university land was made. Also, the City Council was not asked to review or approve the $6 million land purchase, said Cruz.

  The Board of Education was briefed on the plan to locate at UB in executive session, said Weldon. The board approved the plan unanimously, he said.

  “I’ve been trying to put together kind of a public meeting to let the neighborhood and let the Bassick student body see what’s going on,” said Weldon.  “That’s been difficult for obvious reasons. But I’m hopeful that in the very near future with social distancing being relaxed we’ll be able to gather people in an auditorium, show some slides, show this is the overall site, this is where the building is going, you know, the whole thing.”