Every child in New Haven deserves to attend a school that is safe, healthy, clean, functional, and conducive to learning. Every teacher and staff member deserves the same. When there are reports of mold, leaking roofs, malfunctioning heating or cooling systems, damaged bathrooms, water intrusion, o r other serious deficiencies in our schools, they should concern all of us, and they should be addressed promptly. But accountability also requires history. I write about this issue with a particular sense of responsibility. I served on the New Haven Board of Education, including as its president, during an extraordinary period in which the city undertook one of the most ambitious school construction and reconstruction programs in the country. Beginning in 1995, New Haven undertook an extensive effort to rebuild, replace, or renovate-as-new virtually its entire public-school infrastructure. Originally conceived as roughly a 15-year effort involving about 47 schools, the program ultimately extended well beyond 2010, with at least 42 major school-building projects undertaken by 2018, including the Barack H. Obama Magnet University School, at a cost approaching $1.5 to $1.6 billion. It was an enormous commitment by the city and state and, above all, an investment in New Haven’s children. Many of us who participated in that work believed deeply that the physical environments in which children learn matter. Buildings convey messages. A beautiful, well-maintained school tells children that they matter, that education matters, and that the community considers their future worthy of investment. But there is an equally important lesson that we must remember today: Construction is not preservation. A school reconstructed “as new” does not remain new forever. Roofs deteriorate. Heating and cooling systems age. Pipes corrode. Windows and seals fail. Masonry requires attention. Drainage systems become compromised. Mechanical equipment reaches the end of its useful life. Technology becomes obsolete. Even the best-designed and best-constructed building begins aging from the moment it opens its doors. That is why rebuilding schools was never, and could never have been, the end of our responsibility. It was the beginning of another responsibility: maintaining them. The concerns currently being raised about New Haven’s school facilities are therefore serious. Recent public discussion has included concerns about mold, leaks, HVAC problems, temperature conditions, bathrooms, and other maintenance and safety issues. Those concerns should neither be dismissed nor politicized. But neither should we assume that the person occupying the superintendent’s office when a deteriorated condition becomes visible necessarily created that condition. Dr. Madeline Negrón became superintendent of New Haven Public Schools in 2023. Many of the buildings now requiring significant attention were constructed or reconstructed many years before she arrived. This distinction matters. A roof that needs replacement in 2026 did not begin deteriorating in 2026. Water infiltration, aging mechanical systems, inadequate ventilation, deteriorating masonry, and deferred capital repairs generally develop over years. Understanding how the district reached its present circumstances therefore requires something more substantial than identifying who happens to be superintendent today. It requires examining the history of maintenance itself. What preventive-maintenance schedules were followed over the past 15 or 20 years? What repairs were recommended but postponed? What capital improvements were funded or not funded? What work-order systems existed? What inspections were conducted? What was the condition of major roofs, HVAC systems, plumbing, electrical systems, and building envelopes five, ten, or 15 years ago? What responsibility was assigned to contractors, district employees, city government, and successive administrations? Those are legitimate questions, and they should be answered. This does not mean that the current superintendent or Board of Education should be exempt from accountability. Quite the contrary. A superintendent should be accountable for how problems are addressed while under that superintendent’s leadership. But that is different from assuming responsibility for having created every inherited problem. The appropriate measure should be straightforward: What conditions did the current administration inherit? What did it know and when? What has it done about those conditions? What remains unresolved? And what systems is it putting in place to prevent the same deterioration fromcontinuing? There are signs that the district recognizes that its facilities-management system itself requires change. Facilities management had been outsourced since 2022. The district has moved toward rebuilding internal facilities-management capacity, with the stated goal of improving oversight and reducing dependence on private contractors. The district has also acknowledged substantial long-term capital needs, including roofs, HVAC systems, technology, and other major building systems. These steps do not eliminate the problems that exist. Nor should they prevent legitimate scrutiny. They do, however, provide important context for evaluating the current administration’s response. New Haven now needs to move beyond the recurring cycle of discovering a problem, repairing it, and waiting for the next one to emerge. What we need is a comprehensive School Facilities Stewardship Plan. First, every New Haven school should undergo a rigorous and independent facilities assessment using consistent standards. Roofs, HVAC systems, plumbing, electrical systems, windows, building envelopes, indoor air quality, accessibility, safety systems, and other major infrastructure should be evaluated. Second, the findings should be made understandable and accessible to the public. Every school should have a facilities condition profile identifying immediate needs, projects required within the next several years, and anticipated long-term capital replacements. Third, the district should establish a genuine preventive-maintenance program. We should know not merely what broke yesterday, but what is likely to fail three, five, or ten years from now. Fourth, New Haven should develop a protected multiyear capital plan for school facilities. A city and state that invested approximately $1.5 to $1.6 billion rebuilding these schools have a powerful financial interest in protecting that investment. Finally, there should be an annual public facilities report presented jointly by the school district and appropriate city agencies detailing what work was completed, what remains outstanding, what was spent, what has been deferred, and what major building systems will require attention in subsequent years. Rather than commission studies that disappear onto shelves, the city should build a permanent system that converts facilities assessments into schedules, budgets, assignments of responsibility, and publicly measurable results. There is enough responsibility here to be shared without turning school maintenance into a search for a single person to blame. Those of us who participated in rebuilding New Haven’s schools should also acknowledge something important: our generation’s responsibility did not end when the ribbon was cut. We built those schools for future generations. The responsibility of succeeding administrations, Boards of Education, city governments, facilities professionals, and the community was, and remains, to preserve them. Superintendent Negrón should therefore be evaluated fairly, based upon the conditions she inherited, the problems identified during her administration, the actions taken in response, and the systems she establishes for the future. The same standard should apply to every superintendent and every public official entrusted with our schools. Our children gain nothing from arguments over who deserves the most blame. They gain something when adults reconstruct the history honestly, accept responsibility where it belongs, correct what needs to be corrected, and build structures that prevent the same failures fromhappening again. Three decades ago, New Haven demonstrated that it could undertake something extraordinary: rebuilding nearly an entire urban school system. Our challenge today is different, but no less important. We rebuilt the schools. Now we must prove that we know how to care for them. Dr. Carlos Torre is Professor of Education (Curriculum Learning) at Southern Connecticut State University. He previously served on New Haven’s Board of Education, including as its president. The post Opinion: We Rebuilt New Haven’s Schools. Now We Must Preserve Them appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less