Shhhhh...

It is unbelievable that city officials are hushing up the fact that New Britain High School’s accreditation is in jeopardy – and apparently, the newspapers and other media are letting them.

In case anyone’s unsure, losing accreditation is a huge, huge deal, and a huge, huge black eye to the city. Yet officials are ignoring the fact that New Britain High School may lose its accreditation – which basically means that the education students got there, well, won’t really count.

Apparently, that’s no big deal to officials, who have been able to avoid the issue by keeping it from parents, and now, refusing to respond to repeated calls and questions from this blog about the fact that the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) is meeting Sunday to discuss the school’s probation.

Further, when NEASC first announced the probation several months ago, NEASC offered the city a chance to dispute the facts and try to avoid the probation. New Britain officials declined the offer and said that NEASC was justified in their findings. Go ahead with the probation. All without a word to the public.

Not only are officials ignoring the whole issue, and withholding critical information from the parents and the rest of the public, but it’s still unclear whether Common Council members knew – or even know – about it. Wouldn’t that have been relevant now, at budget time? Shouldn’t taxpayers decide how much money should be spent on a school that are on the brink of not even being legitimate, so to speak?

This is not new. School officials have been aware for months that this was happening. It all stemmed from an inspection done at the school way back in the fall. And still, since way back then, no word to the public.

And still, despite the fact that this blog – and yes, they’re reading it, because the site visits have more than tripled since we posted the news Monday – has reported it, they’ve refused to deal with the issue. Calls to Mayor Timothy Stewart’s office with questions about the probation have been dismissed with a friendly "the mayor is very busy but he hopes to get a chance to call you back." Over at Superintendent Doris Kurtz’s, office, a call back was promised but never delivered.

No word to the public.

Sadly, this system has worked for these officials. Gone are the days of media watchdogs, apparently. Fine, forget the media, because apparently they’ve forgotten. But where is mayoral hopeful James Wyskiewicz and the other New Britain Democrats? Any watchdog groups out there? Parents? A high school PTO? Is anyone listening?

City officials are clearly hoping, perhaps justifiably, then the issue will remain under the carpet. And unless someone makes some noise, it will.

New Britain High School on probation

New Britain High School’s accreditation is in jeopardy, a result of a fall visit from the agency that accredits Connecticut’s schools.

"We were told the school is on probation," said Board of Education member James Sanders. "That’s a big deal. If you’re not accredited, you can’t go to college."

Only about 3-1/2 percent of schools are put on probation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), the accreditation agency, which will meet Sunday to discuss the status of NBHS, according to Charles McCarthy, an associate director of NEASC.

McCarthy said that several months ago, the district was notified that as a result of an intensive four-day visit by NEASC in the fall, New Britain High School was being put on probation – unless school officials could argue that the results were wrong.

"They have chosen not to contest the findings," he said. "They agreed the findings were accurate."

Superintendent of Schools Doris J. Kurtz could not be reached at posting time.

Carvel deal needs critical reporting

The Herald’s economic development coverage is mostly press release rewriting. There’s no critical analysis. I realize its reporters have tough workloads, but if a newspaper wants to avoid becoming irrelevant it has to ask the hard questions.

Why be critical of The Herald and its coverage of Carvel -- a company that plans to build 120,000 square foot plant at Booth and Myrtle Streets that will employ 265 people?

In these kinds of agreements, details matter. The city is desperate for economic development and developers know it and it's the newspaper’s job to make sure the city isn’t giving away too much to get it.

Here's my experience on that point.

In mid-1980s, New Britain had 15 acres of undeveloped land in downtown. This land was said to be so important to the city’s future that it was nicknamed “the jewels.”

Without going into its long history or details, the city ended up turning over the land to one developer who could not produce the office park detailed in its pretty architectural renderings. Only one building went up, One Liberty Square -- and that was built only after the city committed to using one third of it for the school department administrative headquarters. The state has since built a court house on the property.

I was one of the reporters working on that story at the time. Did we raise the right questions? Dig deep enough? I’ll let others make that assessment. But I certainly did learn from it.

It is good news that Carvel is building in the city and it is a far different deal then Liberty Square project. No question about it. But what did the state and city offer to bring Carvel to this city?

Here are some questions:

About the site itself: How much of the development land is Carvel getting? Did the city give up more property than it should have? What impact does this project have on future development on that parcel? [The Courant put the site at 13.5 acres. How much is Carvel taking?]

Are there additional costs not reported? For instance, will road, traffic light improvements or other infrastructure work be needed to support this development and, if so, who pays for it?

Are there any environmental issues?

What will the building look like? Granted, anything is probably better than vacant land. But this facility is, afterall, in a very visible near-downtown location and may have an impact on future development. Will there be any effort to try to ensure that the facility not only adds tax revenue, but is developed in such a way as to encourage additional development?

Labor: What types of jobs are being created and what will they pay? Sometimes these deals can create incentives to hire workers locally. Is that the case here? A Herald story mentions some job training money. Job training for what?

Just curious: Rocky Hill is loosing in the deal, since Carvel corporate is relocating. What’s the tax revenue loss in that community?

Are there any potential deal-breakers?

What’s the real cost of this project? The big issue is always tax breaks. The Herald report is very unclear about the tax incentives, the cost of those incentives and the return -- tax revenue -- from it. It’s reporting doesn’t go much beyond what I read in the governor’s press release. Compare the two:

The Herald:

Use of the proposed building, with an estimated value of $16.3 million in facilities, machinery and equipment, is expected to result in more than $500,000 in real and personal property tax revenue for the city. The state could see an economic return estimated to be in excess of $23 million over 10 years.

State Governor’s press release:

The proposed building with an estimated value of $16 million will result in over $500,000 in real and personal property tax revenue for the City. As important to New Britain this project is — representing an investment by Celebration Foods of $16,260,000 in new facilities and machinery and equipment — the state will also see an economic return estimated to be in excess of $23 million over a 10-year period.

The Courant explains that the $500,000 is annual revenue to the city. (That’s seems good, but it’s also why I’m interested in knowing whether there are any gotchas that – such as the infrastructrure improvements – that cut into that revenue gain.)

This is what the Courant reported:

Celebration Foods is expected to generate more than $500,000 in real estate and personal property tax revenue for the city each year and more than $23 million for the state over 10 years, according to Rell's office. It will be one of the city's top 10 taxpayers, Stewart said.

The city and the state Department of Economic and Community Development offered Celebration, which had considered about 50 other communities, several incentives. City incentives include a $1 million grant and a five-year, 80 percent discount on real and personal property taxes, which will be reimbursed to the city by the state, Stewart said.

One report in The Herald did quote an economist at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association who said Carvel would have a help spur other businesses. That was a good source to call.

It’s easy to raise questions, as I did here, away from any deadline and with the benefit of time and distance. And some of these questions will take time to answer. But there’s ample opportunity for additional reporting about this project.