Norwalk High School enters its next phase

Governor Ned Lamont joined Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff and a host of officials from the city and its school district, including the school mascot, to mark the breaking of new ground at Norwalk High School.

The project is expected to cost $239 million, and several speakers thanked Senator Duff for earning an unusually high reimbursement rate of 80 percent from the state.

Construction was poised to begin with an already established staging area on the site of the school’s former softball field, once the path many students took to reach school busses at the end of the day, while demolition of the football field and athletic grounds began in earnest after the turning of the first ceremonial shovelful.

The new high school’s primary building will be positioned at the southern end of the property, adjacent to Naramake Elementary School. When the new building is completed, demolition will begin on the current Norwalk High School building which is also home to Pathways in Technology Early College Highschool (P-TECH), an educational program that provides students the opportunity to work towards an associate’s degree in a technical field while earning their high school diploma. P-TECH and its students will also transfer to the new building.

“This takes a team to do,” said Mayor Rilling to a group of students and dignitaries gathered for the last event to be held on the field where decades of students had run track, watched football games, and received their diplomas. “This is something we’ve waited for quite some time; I believe several years ago now we started talking about this and it’s finally coming to fruition.”

Curr

ent Norwalk High student Christian Pierre expressed excitement on behalf of his classmates.

“Although we may not be here to completely enjoy it, I am eager to see the direction the school will be taken in,” Pierre said. “Personally, I’m most excited for the new music department.”

He called finding consistent practice spaces for the school’s award-winning music department a struggle.

Fellow senior Kierra Cunniffe seconded Pierre, and noted “The improved facilities will benefit all of the programs we have been part of for the past four years.”

“From a student’s perspective, although bittersweet, I could not be any more excited and hopeful for the next generation of students and staff,” said Aaron Charles, a P-TECH senior. “This new building will help breed excellence and bring the best out of both schools.

Dr. Alexandra Estrella, the Norwalk Superintendent of Schools explained when asked why this project is so important ,that it was for the sake of the students.

“We need to make sure that we have facilities that are equipped to support them, set up experiences that prepare scholars for the future,” Estrella said. “In order to do that we need to have more projects like the one that we’re seeing here today.”

She also addressed current students, saying “Although you may not be the scholars that will be educated in this new facility, you are the scholars that will come back and celebrate with us the important work that will be happening here because you are also part of this important future.”

Senator Duff hailed the new construction as a necessary step forward. Most of the current building was completed in the 1970s.

“While some of us are nostalgic for our high school experience…we should not walk into the very building we attended decades ago that our children now attend, with the same look, feel and function,” Duff said.

“In fact, these buildings cannot function the same because time pushes us forward. Technology advances and learning styles adapt. So should our school infrastructure. After 52 years it’s time for a change. This Norwalk High School and P-TECH will be the fourth iteration for Norwalk. My grandmother graduated from the first Norwalk High School on West Avenue. I have cousins who graduated from Norwalk High on East Avenue, now City Hall. And I graduated from the present school, as did my two children.”

Duff cited consistent HVAC problems, windowless rooms, unusable courtyards, an undersized and unsecured cafeteria, and widespread issues that make the current building expensive and difficult to bring into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as key reasons why replacement made more sense than retrofits or upgrades.

As for why the replacements needed to be made now, Duff noted that the library is not as well equipped as some Norwalk middle schools, mounting air quality problems in the pool area, and needed repairs and upkeep to the plumbing made difficult by the past decision to encase many pipes in concrete.

“If we were not here today for a groundbreaking, Connecticut would need to invest at a minimum $20 million just to maintain the status quo.”

Governor Lamont called Duff the “Teddy Roosevelt” of his delegation, speaking softly and carrying a big stick to accomplish major feats such as an 80 percent reimbursement rate for the project, which he characterized as a worthwhile investment in the state’s future.

I go around and I meet with the other governors,” Lamont told the crowd, “You’ve got Texas going up to a business guy going, ‘we’ve got really cheap gas and oil.’ You’ve got Florida saying ‘well we sell sunshine to tourists.’”

“I get to say, ‘Connecticut has the best trained, most productive workforce in the world.’”

“This,” Lamont said, “is our secret sauce.”