Council Chair Malloy Offers Rationale for 'No' Vote on SHS Renovation Plan

Town Council Chairman Thomas Malloy took a moment on Monday, May 23, just prior to the 8-2 vote to approve a $56 million bonding authorization to renovate Stratford High School, to criticize the overall project direction.

Malloy was quick to qualify his objection as against its need, for which he concurred, but for its lack of imagination and failure to address several of the ongoing problems associated with the downtown high school campus. 

“I am going to vote no tonight,” Malloy said, although he quickly added that he was “not opposed to the renovations, they are sorely needed.” 

However, he said, the “big problem” he sees with the plan is that it “doesn’t really change the footprint” of the high school that serves more than 900 students from Stratford’s center and south end. 

“There are no additional fields,” Malloy continued. And “no parking issues” are solved. 

Malloy noted that there was a lack of imagination in addressing the issues facing Stratford High School. “I don’t think the committee looked outside the box” for solutions, citing high school sports team players “who are walking in full gear across the Post Road to access the sports fields at Longbrook Park. 

“This has gone on far too long,” Malloy said. “It seems to me that we could have acquired the police station property” located contiguous to Longbrook Park, as well as other nearby properties including the YMCA to address some of the issues he cited above.

“No one on those committees thought of any of this,” Malloy said, adding that perhaps if we more closely analyzed any of the other options then perhaps other far-ranging, more forward-looking solution could have been “do-able.” 

After the meeting, two residents who had addressed the Town Council’s Ordinance Committee during its public hearing on the $56 million spending plan commented on Malloy’s objections.

Walter Rimkunas noted that the committees including the full Board of Education overseeing the SHS renovation plan had considered other options, but that a totally new school on an alternate site would cost upwards of $100 million, a price deemed not practical given the town’s financial situation and a lack of suitable and available properties.

George Mulligan chimed in via email that “the police department property idea won’t work due to deed restrictions” placed on the land when it was given to the town that it be used exclusively for a police department headquarters.

The $56 million price tag for renovations is 50% reimburseable by the state under the current formula in effect.