The city is moving forward on a new Roosevelt School on Park Avenue in the South End. From Mayor Bill Finch:
Demolition of Roosevelt Elementary School is set to begin on Friday morning at 11 a.m. The school, which opened its doors in 1965, will be replaced by a new $45 million school designed by Antinozzi Associates of Bridgeport and will be built by the Fusco Corporation of New Haven.
“We are looking forward to ushering in a new era for the students and parents of the South End with the demolition of Roosevelt School,” said Mayor Bill Finch. “We have focused on creating state-of-the-art learning environments for Bridgeport students with a very aggressive and successful school construction initiative. A new Roosevelt School will provide students with a safe, fun and modern facility.”
Roosevelt Elementary School students are currently located in the school district’s swing space on Iranistan Avenue. The new school is scheduled to open in 2014 at 680 Park Ave., Bridgeport, CT.
*** Good news for the South End and the kids, no? ***
So what voting precinct will replace this school?
South End voters have been going to Batalla School.
Another positive move by Finch.
More money the city doesn’t have being spent by Finch. He spends money on buildings but not on teachers and other staff. And he certainly doesn’t spend it on police protection.
The master building plans for new schools, renovation and replacement of schools was put into place by former Superintendent of Schools Sonia Salcedo … remember her? The big reformer whom no one liked but did the best job ever in using data and bringing real professional development to the district and most importantly closing the candy shop to Mario and others!
The state has had buckets of money available for school building, magnet schools and regional magnet schools for years and years. But none was available ’til Dr. Salcedo actually brought in experts to develop a master plan built on demographics. THAT is when Roosevelt school was put on the list. And before they got to Roosevelt, the new Batalla, Tisdale, Barnum, Discovery Magnet Schools were built, the swing space was created, Columbus (what a debacle) and Cross were renovated, and now Roosevelt is being rebuilt and Longfellow is next.
Thank you Sonia!!!
*** Not enough credit goes to the school building committee that oversees all the renovations and new school building projects that later in the process are also reviewed by the BOE. ***
Maxi,
I will call “Fatty/Gordita/Amor” first thing in the morning to say you said, “Thank you, Sonia!!!”
She’ll be happy to hear someone remembers her good deeds in Bridgeport many years ago.
Do you think there’s a chance this brand spanking new Roosevelt School will be called the “Sonia Diaz Salcedo School” for the first Puerto Rican Bridgeport Schools superintendent who saved/protected the schools’ money to actually build schools in Bridgeport? … just a passing thought.
The City likes to put in suburban style schools in the inner city and destroy the intricacy of neighborhoods. The maintenance and operating costs are astronomical and make our taxes go up. We have many new buildings but the quality of education keeps going down. The definition of insanity: persist in the behavior that consistently causes more problems and expect the end product to change as you repeat the same mistake over and over. We moved out of Barnum and Garfield Schools under the presumption their age was responsible for poor education quality and yet Achievement First takes them over and excels. Meanwhile we have what looks like some kind of industrial building on the old Father Panik site that is hardly the community center it was predicted to be.