Board of Aldermen 11-24-2020 Page 26
Alderman Dowd
Yes, | thought that Mr. Donovan was going to be on tonight but they do have the funding worked out. One
of the uses of the school, one of the floors is going to be for the alternative school that we are currently
having to pay $170,000.00 lease on every year. That will used for the initial payments plus some other
funds that they have set aside for this building. And the other will be for the Kindergarten children on a
different floor and they will be separated and there will be no interaction between the two, because when
we took Kindergarten into the elementary schools, the schools were already full as far as classrooms, now
it's a strain. So this will put all of the expertise on teaching the youngsters in one school and free up some
of the space in the other elementary schools.
We were also able, “we” not me, that was a former life when | was on the Board of Ed but | am the liaison
to the Board of Ed, and we were able to get the majority if not all of the furniture for that school for nothing.
It was donated to us by a company that went up in Merrimack. In fact, we had so much material that some
of it got donated to the Children’s Home as well. So the expenses for the building have all been worked out
by Mr. Donovan, | have full confidence in his ability to do that and it’s exceedingly important to acquire this
building so that after payment, there will be actually a positive impact on the Board of Education Budget
because the lease payments will be gone. So any other questions | could possibly answer.
President Wilshire
First | have Alderman Harriott-Gathright.
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
| just want to say ditto to the Budget Chair that location that we were renting off of Amherst Street for the
students, the older students it will be a great relief not to have to have to lease that building, literally. So in
my opinion it is a savings to the City. It’s not that we are actually spending more, because it’s going to be a
savings to the City because we are taking two different groups and putting into that building that’s already
there and in fairly decent condition.
President Wilshire
You all set, Alderman Gathright?
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
Yes.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Lopez
| just wanted to add on to what Alderman Dowd had said. The building site is better laid out based on the
presentation that was given to us where you can kind of control access on the part of older students to
floors with younger students on it. But it does allow for supervised job training basically for childcare
support and | have seen that effectively applied at programs like the Adult Learning Center. It provides
really good opportunities for teaching positive skill sets. And then additionally, | think it was also mentioned
that the transportation of students with special needs, due to its consolidated nature, would also be a
savings because we are not going to have to spread that out over quite as many school sites and that there
were potentially some staffing savings as well. So | think this is a better deal and a more efficient use of
spaces. | am looking forward to see it unfold. | know the Brentwood difficulty has been one we have kind of
been struggling with for years. So it is good to see a plan kind of coming together like this.
