“For decades, thousands of Bridgeport kids have been attending schools in desperate need of repair. But that's changing. We're making smart investments in school construction. On my watch, we've launched the largest school construction effort in our city's history.”– Mayor Bill Finch
Bridgeport, Connecticut (July 20, 2015) –Mayor Bill Finch joined State Representative Steven Stafstrom, school officials and construction workers for a tour of the new Longfellow Elementary School construction site.
A new 75,680 square foot school including a full size gymnasium, a technology and media center, a cafeteria, and an outdoor play areas is currently under construction. The new school will meet LEED SILVER Classification standards, which means the school will meet some of the highest environmental standards in the country.
Once complete, this project is estimated to create 350 construction jobs.
Construction of Longfellow School is just one of several ongoing school construction projects in Bridgeport. Under Mayor Finch’s leadership, 13,000 students in the Park City will attend new or renovated schools in the near future as the city continues working to provide kids with the tools to one day compete for 21st-century jobs.
“For decades, thousands of Bridgeport kids have been attending schools in desperate need of repair. But that's changing. We're making smart investments in school construction. On my watch, we've launched the largest school construction effort in our city's history,” said Mayor Finch. “We're renovating existing – and creating new – schools. Once complete, our school construction program will have created more than 3,000 jobs in Bridgeport. And, more than half of our public school kids will attend a new or newly renovated school, ensuring more and more kids are learning in the right environment.”
During the walkthrough Mayor Finch recognized two members of the construction team, Paul and Jim, who are Bridgeport residents and neighbors of the Finch family in the North Bridgeport neighborhood.
“This project was originally slated to be a renovation. But through Mayor Finch’s leadership and other leaders in the city and state, we were able to move forward with a demolition of the old Longfellow School along with a remediation of the site and the building of a new state-of-the-art school,” said State Rep. Stafstrom. “We’re very thankful to see this project progressing.”
In every city neighborhood, Mayor Bill Finch is building new schools and renovating existing ones.
By the time the initiative is completed, the city and state will have invested $725 million in new and renovated schools for kids.
This aggressive school construction program is also providing a boost to our local economy by creating jobs and giving small business an opportunity to grow and thrive.
Recently, through the efforts of Small, Minority Business Resource Office, more than $50 million has been awarded to small, minority and women-owned businesses on Bridgeport’s four most recent school construction projects.
On these four construction projects - Black Rock Elementary School, Fairchild Wheeler Magnet High School, Roosevelt Elementary School and Longfellow Elementary School - 100 out of 101 subcontracting opportunities were awarded to minority or women-owned businesses.
Funding for the new $50 million Longfellow Elementary School is provided by the State of Connecticut and City of Bridgeport. Work began on the project last summer and is slated to be completed in the fall of 2016.