A new magnet school focusing on environmental issues, math and science is in the works after the city of Stamford received $14.1 million from the state Department of Education to buy a 13-acre site that will eventually house the school.
The money from the department represented a reimbursement to the city for the purchase of the former Clairol Inc. site, which will house the new elementary school. The project will eventually total $58 million, 95 percent of which will be reimbursed by the state. The payment made last week reflects 95 percent of the purchase price of the land, less the small percentage of funding the state retains until the project is finished and audited.
The new school will complement another magnet school – the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering – that is currently under construction in Stamford. The new schools are necessary because of the growth of the city’s student body and the construction follows a plan that allows for a menu of choices for parents and students to choose from, according to Mayor Dannel P. Malloy.
“Our student body has expanded about 40 percent over 15 years,” he said.
The new school will run an extended day program and will include pre-kindergarten classes.
“This is the first reimbursement that we have received from the state’s magnet school construction program, but it won’t be the last,” Malloy said in a prepared statement. “We are moving ahead with this school, as well as with the AITE, both of which are approved for state funding. In total, these schools will represent over $96 million in state support for schools in Stamford over the next couple of years.
“To put this in perspective, we have spent $300 million on our schools in the last decade, and received nearly $50 million from the state during that period. The average age of our schools has dropped from 28 years in 1995 to 12 years today. Now we are finding ways to increase that state assistance dramatically through the magnet school program, to the benefit of our children and our taxpayers.”
