Create a CEG Account  /  CEG Login

Waterbury, Conn. Bond Hearing Could Help Fund Scaled-Back School Expansion Effort

Waterbury, Conn. is seeking a $37 million bond for the scaled-back expansion of Roberto Clemente International Dual Language School to accommodate grade 8, reducing the cost from $81.4 million. Plans to use a vacant convent building for seventh and eighth grades are outlined, with state reimbursement potentially covering 80 percent of costs. Tight scheduling aims to maintain bilingual education program's expansion.

Thu June 19, 2025 - Northeast Edition
CT Insider


School officials in Waterbury, Conn. have scaled back a project to expand the Roberto Clemente International Dual Language School to accommodate plans to bring enrollment up to grade 8, a move which lowers the proposed cost from $81.4 million to $37 million.

As a result, the Waterbury board of Aldermen will conduct a hearing on a $37 million bond request June 23, 2025, at City Hall and a vote is expected to follow that evening.

The timetable is razor-thin for obtaining state funding and remaining on schedule for gradually adding grade levels in the magnet school that offers a language immersion program, teaching students English and Spanish simultaneously up to the eighth grade.

There is little room for delays whatever the cause, according to CT Insider.

"It is going to be tight," said Waterbury Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. "The goal is to get this going and get moving on it."

The city's Board of Education is facing a June 30, 2025, application deadline to apply for state funding for the expansion. The Clemente project must make the annual school construction priority list that will be forwarded to the Connecticut legislature in late December 2025 for consideration in the 2026 legislative session.

The Clemente school opened in the former Saints Peter and Paul parochial school on Beecher Avenue in 2021 to an evenly divided mix of 112 native English- and Spanish-speaking students in pre-K, kindergarten and first grade. The academic plan called for adding a new grade level each year until the school reaches the eighth grade in the 2028-29 school year.

The ability to maintain this schedule and fulfill the commitment to Clemente families and students in providing a bilingual education up to high school depends on the timely approval of a school construction grant and completion of the expansion project, CT Insider noted June 14, 2025.

Waterbury School Superintendent Darren Schwartz told the board of Aldermen that the current 39,500-sq.-ft. school building will be able to accommodate the fifth and sixth grades for the next two school years, but there will not be enough space available for a seventh-grade class in 2026-27.

"We'll fit the sixth grade into the current building. It might require a year of 'art on the cart' and a few things like that," Schwartz said. "But this [is] the year we would have to make the decision to put it up to the eighth [grade] because after that we couldn't fit the seventh grade in the school."

Pernerewski said in a subsequent interview with CT Insider that he is confident accommodations could be made to permit the enrollment rollout to continue if the expansion project gets held up, including the use of temporary classrooms for the first anticipated seventh-grade class.

"I think if we needed a year to transition, we'd be able to find a solution if we have to," he said. "We'll find a way."

The school was renamed in 2024 after Roberto Clemente, a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also was a dedicated humanitarian who died at age 38 on New Year's Eve in 1972 when his chartered plane crashed as he was on his way to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Adjacent Vacated Convent Building Could Be Used

The biggest constraint facing the expansion of the Clemente magnet school and its language immersion program is the size and condition of the school building.

The revised $37 million project plan comes a year after the first proposal to construct 87,000 sq. ft. of building additions was withdrawn because the $81.4 million cost was too high for Pernerewski and the Waterbury Board of Aldermen.

The city's share after state reimbursements was estimated to be $31.4 million. At that time, it was decided to explore other options even though that meant pushing the timetable back one year.

The new scaled-back plan proposes renovating a vacant convent building abutting the rear of the school and connecting the two buildings. School officials reported that inspections determined the two-story brick convent is structurally sound and suitable for proposed uses. Plans call for locating the seventh and eighth grade classes in the renovated convent building.

The redesign reduced the original $81.4 million project cost by 54 percent. State reimbursements could cover up to 80 percent of the revised project cost based on initial consultations with Connecticut officials.

The projected reimbursement rate is 78.9 percent, which would represent $29.2 million of the cost. School officials reported the project could be eligible for up to an additional 5 percentage points because the Clemente school offers full-day kindergarten classes.

After the Saints Peter and Paul school closed in 2019, Waterbury acquired the property for $1.75 million in 2020, and the Clemente International Dual Language School opened a year later. The three-story main school building was built in 1926, and a two-story addition was constructed in 1962. The convent building was erected in 1970.

The project plan calls for building a new cafeteria, a full-size gymnasium, dedicated art and music rooms, a media center and the new seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms in the former convent. In addition, there would be elevators in both structures, the roofs on both buildings would be replaced and new heating and air conditioning systems installed, along with added security protections.

Enrollment is expected to increase to nearly 320 students when Clemente adds its fifth-grade classes next year, and it is projected to range between 460 and 480 students after the eighth-grade classes are added, CT Insider learned.




Today's top stories

Chesapeake Bypass Phase 2 — $128.5 Project Under Way

Delaware State University Gets $20M from State to Build New Athletics Field House

Durante Equipment Opens Second South Florida Location in Lake Worth

Caterpillar, Luck Stone Celebrate One Million Tons Hauled Autonomously at Bull Run Quarry

Equipment Theft's Rising Cost, What the Data Demands

Volvo Construction Equipment Wins Red Dot Award for New Electric Design

Payne & Dolan Performs Mass Grading at MRMC

Officials Break Ground On Midway's Largest Project of Year


 







39.95234 \\ -75.16379 \\ Philadelphia \\ PA \\ US \\ 19019