Mayor Touts Team Efforts as Vernon Gets More School Construction Reimbursement

Mayor George Apel on Thursday said it was team effort among town officials,    state legislators and local school system officials in obtaining about $2 million in reimbursements from the Connecticut General Assembly to support the Town’s $62 million worth of school renovation projects. 

“With the difficult financial times facing our state and municipalities, I am grateful for the work of our legislators and staff who pursued and secured this funding for the citizens of Vernon," Apel said. 

Since 2005, the Town has spent the $62 million to renovate each of Vernon's seven schools, Apel said. 

Previously, town and school board officials worked collaboratively to receive approximately $33.5 in construction reimbursement grants from the state for the renovations, the mayor said. 

The increase in reimbursement of $2,008,330, announced this week, "will save the Vernon taxpayers money by reducing future debt principal and interest payments," Apel said.

Here is the breakdown of what the state has committed to Vernon: 

Center Road School
• Additional reimbursement - $114,460.• Project cost - $4,369,610.

Lake Street School
• Additional reimbursement - $139,016.• Project cost - $5,045,295. 

Skinner Road School
• Additional reimbursement - $272,088.• Project cost -  $4,109,413.

Rockville High School
• Additional reimbursement - $1,482.766.• Project cost -  $27,858,602.

Michael Purcaro, the director of business and finance for the Vernon school system, said that special legislation was requested and proposed on behalf of the system for technical modifications to the State Department of Education's space standards calculations, which determine the reimbursement rate for local school improvement projects. 

"These modifications maximized the pending school construction grant reimbursement amounts to the Town of Vernon," he said. "Specific modifications to the space standards calculations were made for three elementary school construction projects because the actual highest enrollment at these schools exceeded the original projected highest enrollment at the start of the projects. 

"In a similar fashion, VPS benefited from relief of the space standards calculations at Rockville High School due to the additional space per student for vocational agriculture, which was could not be included in the original application under the current regulations."

The impact of "this affirmative legislative action, led by State Rep. Claire Janowski, resulted in an increase in state reimbursement of $2,008,330," he said.

"This is a huge win for the Vernon taxpayers as it will save the town money through the reduction of future debt principal and interest payments," Purcaro said.