January 17, 2012

GOODWIN BREAKS GROUND ON CONNECTICUT RIVER ACADEMY

By Steven Crighton, Journal Inquirer

EAST HARTFORD — Goodwin College officials broke ground Wednesday on a $57 million project to build the first of three magnet school near the Riverside Drive campus.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was among 12 officials who took shovel in hand to break ground on the Connecticut River Academy. Others included Mayor Marcia LeClerc; state Sen. Gary LaBeau, D-East Hartford; State Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor; and state Rep. Henry Genga, D-East Hartford.

Malloy praised the college's initiative to improve the educational quality of the school's students.

"Goodwin College is good for the state of Connecticut, good for East Hartford, and it's certainly good for its students," Malloy said Wednesday.

Genga, who is also a member of the legislature's Education Committee, said the project would create a lot of construction jobs, and Malloy said he will "celebrate the fact that we're putting construction workers back to work."

"It's such an important thing mentally for these students to walk into a new building with new facilities. It's really an enlightening environment," Genga said of the project that will construct a 103,000-square-foot building.

Around a hundred people attended the event, including more than a dozen students, Genga said.

"It was so exciting. We've been planning this for three years. There's so many steps you have to go through," Dean of Magnet Schools Alan Kramer said. "It was so important that all these people were there. It became real for the first time, and we were able to celebrate it together."

Kramer said 480 students would attend the school during the 2013-14 school year, 120 in each grade 9 to 12.

The academy will house nine college-level science labs, a university-style lecture hall, and a green roof. Since the school will be on the river, the academy will have its own dock, Kramer said.

"We're going to have our own floating class — a large floating boat equipped with all sorts of experimental facilities," Kramer said.

U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, D-1st District, who was unable to attend the event but issued a statement on the project, praised Goodwin's work for its students and the town. In May, Larson announced the approval of a $1.15 million federal Economic Development Administration grant to fund the construction.

The academy is the first of three planned magnet schools that will be constructed. The other two are the Pathways Academy of Technology Design, which will house 400 students, and the Goodwin College Early Development Childhood Magnet School, which will host 120 preschool students and 120 kindergarteners, Kramer said.

Kramer said that academy would be run "effectively in partnership" with LEARN, a regional education service center.

Genga said the avenues Goodwin has opened for college students, high school students, and the community are deserving of praise.

"I refer to Goodwin as 'the Goodwin Educational Complex,' because it's so much more than a college," Genga said.

Genga recalled serving on the Town Council during the 1970s when the area around Goodwin was much different than it is today.

"I remember we were talking about the south side, and the mayor said, 'The answer is to stake a bulldozer to it and start it all over. But now look what great things are happening in that area," Genga said.