Schools chief details $1.4 million facilities gap

Town Council · Meeting of September 28, 2026

Bloomfield's superintendent told the Town Council the school district needs about $1.4 million for facility repairs after getting zero capital improvement funding for two straight budget years. Superintendent Dr. Youngberg said painting worn hallways at Bloomfield High School and Carmen Arace Middle School alone would cost about $145,000, and that the district's general budget came in roughly $1 million short in fiscal 2027.

"I don't know how to come up with $1.4 million," she said. The council separately voted 4-3 to send a $7,329.51 chamber-microphone upgrade to the Governance Subcommittee, adopted a revised building-permit fee schedule effective October 13, and tabled reappointment of the Board of Assessment Appeals after Councilor Joe Merritt questioned the board's record on tax fairness. During citizen comments, Bloomfield Community Dispatch editor Peter Frank alleged an August 24 council vote was never recorded in the minutes.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,568 words

Source: the Town Council meeting of September 28, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

The Full Article

Superintendent's Report: Enrollment, Academics and a Growing Facilities Bill

Bloomfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Youngberg appeared before the Town Council for what she described as the first of planned monthly briefings, a format both the superintendent and several councilors said they hope to continue. The question before the council was not a vote but a progress report: where the district stands academically and financially after a year of major consolidations, and what the council should understand about the facilities bill coming due.

Youngberg said the district's state accountability index, a 12-indicator formula the state uses to evaluate public schools, stood at 77.8 in the 2014-15 school year, above the state average of 76.1. By 2024-25 the district's index had fallen into the 60s, below the state average. She said the district still outperforms "almost all" of the state's magnet schools but has set a goal of returning to the 70s.

Enrollment fell by about 125 students this year, which Youngberg attributed almost entirely to the closure of the GEMS magnet school; GEMS had 92 students by the state's October 1 reporting date in 2025, down from a higher count at the start of the year. The high school's incoming class is also down by 20 to 29 students. The district closed GEMS, moved fifth grade from Carmen Arace into Metacomet Elementary, and moved sixth grade into the middle school, changes Youngberg said instructionally match grades three to five and six to eight more naturally than the prior five-six intermediate school configuration. She also described a new Alternative Learning Center opened in the former fifth-grade hallway at Carmen Arace.

On academics, Youngberg distributed a packet of career-cluster materials describing five pathways at Bloomfield High School: agriculture, energy and natural resources; management and entrepreneurship; public service and safety; arts, entertainment and design; and health care and human services. She said the district is working to connect pre-K-through-8 programming to these pathways and is developing an artificial intelligence policy that will go before the district's policy committee, after a question from a councilor about AI in classrooms.

The facilities portion carried the most concrete numbers. Completed work includes repair of a chronic water-main leak, replacement water heaters at Bloomfield High School (addressing brown water reported last year), and the return of the vacated GEMS building to the town on September 18. In progress: relocating the district's IT infrastructure hub from the central office at 1133 Blue Hills Avenue to the Carmen Arace building, for which Youngberg said she approved an initial roughly $40,000 expenditure, partially offset by anticipated E-Rate reimbursement; adding a student bathroom at Metacomet; bringing the VoAg barn at the Agri-Science Center into compliance; and relocating Bloomfield Access Television (BATV) to 330 Park Avenue to free space at Carmen Arace. Youngberg said she received a quote of about $145,000 to paint the Bloomfield High School and Carmen Arace buildings, which she said have gone unpainted long enough to look neglected, something she linked to research on the psychological effect of building conditions on students and staff.

On budget history, Youngberg said the district requested $945,000 in capital improvements for fiscal 2025 and received about $800,000 less than requested. For fiscal 2026, the general budget came in about $900,000 under the district's request, with zero capital improvement funding. For fiscal 2027, the general budget was short about $1 million, again with zero capital funding, which she said forced staff reductions.

"I don't know how to come up with $1.4 million. It's just, it isn't going to happen," Youngberg said, adding that the district has a 10-year facilities plan that has gone largely unfunded for years.

Councilor Joe Merritt asked whether falling enrollment should lower costs; Youngberg said moving costs — about $40,000 to vacate GEMS and an anticipated $100,000 to vacate the central office building — offset savings in the short term, and that the district is paying utilities on the empty GEMS building until the town decides whether to sell, lease or repurpose it. She noted Bloomfield is one of roughly four or five of Connecticut's 169 school districts whose budget is less than half of the total municipal budget, a point Councilor Todd Cooper and others returned to during discussion of staffing levels on the town side versus the schools. Councilor Mahan cautioned colleagues that the presentation's intent was a progress update, not a budget negotiation, after extended exchanges between Youngberg and several councilors about tax burden and staffing comparisons.

No formal council action followed; the item was a presentation and discussion only. Implications: the fiscal 2028 budget process, beginning with the town manager's Blue Ribbon Budget Development Committee meeting October 6, is where any resolution to the capital funding gap would have to be decided.

Citizen Statements: FOI Allegations and an Unrecorded Vote

The agenda's citizen-statement period produced the meeting's sharpest accountability exchanges, though no council action resulted. Peter Frank, a Mallory Ridge resident who identified himself as editor of the Bloomfield Community Dispatch, said his publication that day published an investigation describing what he called "constructive obscurity" — public business technically on the record but hard for residents to find. He said the town attorney's budget grew by $416,000 in one year while the dispatch's own records requests were being handled by that same office; that the council added and voted on an item after an August 24 executive session, a vote he said does not appear in the minutes; that the town's top finance position was filled through a 14-day internal-only posting despite audit delays; and that minutes from two April budget meetings took 161 days to reach the council's agenda. Frank said he sent these findings to the town manager, town attorney and every councilor that morning with a Wednesday 3 p.m. deadline, and that the town manager replied within an hour with "no comment." He asked the council on the record how each member voted after the August 24 executive session and when the council approved an appeal of a Freedom of Information Commission decision.

Resident Kate Keefe said she filed a Freedom of Information request on May 4 and has followed up more than a dozen times without a response from several departments, including council, building and land use, finance, IT, and the town manager's office; she said she had not received an answer to a simple question about the status of software the town purchased to manage FOI requests. Dr. James Beffer, of Terry Plains Road, argued the town charter's Section 502 does not give the town manager authority to form committees, referencing the town manager's forthcoming Blue Ribbon Budget Development Committee, and said the committee's planned 11 a.m. first meeting would be effectively inaccessible to working residents. Carol Riley, of Maple Avenue, said the town has gone years without an Ethics Commission despite charter provisions requiring council nominations, and separately criticized a quorum failure at a recent committee meeting that she said wasted a developer's time. None of these statements were followed by formal council votes; under council rules, written statements submitted to the clerk, as Frank did, are entered into the record.

Blue Ribbon Budget Committee: A Transparency Dispute

During the town manager's report, delivered by Director of Finance Donna Stewart because the town manager was traveling, Councilor Mahan said the council still did not know who would serve on the town manager's Blue Ribbon Budget Development Committee, what party affiliations they held, or what criteria were used to select them, despite having asked previously. The town manager, participating remotely, said the panel is a committee rather than a political commission, that it will not direct any action, and that he had declined to release prospective members' names until after an initial meeting to confirm their willingness to serve, citing a past instance where a candidate withdrew over a conflict. He said the committee's first meeting is scheduled for October 6 at town hall and would be open to the public but without a Zoom option or public comment. Mahan and Councilor Suzette DeBeathen-Brown both said the council should have set budget guidelines before the committee was convened; Councilor Darrell Goodwin separately defended the town manager's process, saying volunteers being vetted deserve not to have their reputations questioned publicly before formal confirmation, a comment he directed at the discussion that followed the Board of Assessment Appeals vote later in the meeting.

Old Business: Fee Schedule Adopted

Director of Building and Land Use Dr. Coleman presented a resolution amending Chapter 6 (Building Division) and Chapter 15 (Planning and Zoning) of the town code to revise building permit and land-use application fees, following a public hearing held as part of the fiscal 2027 revenue projections. The council voted unanimously by voice to waive the formal reading and then voted unanimously to adopt the fee schedule as recommended by staff, with amendments, effective October 13, 2026, pending town attorney review for statutory compliance.

New Business: Technology Purchase Sent to Subcommittee

The council considered a $7,329.51 purchase for a microphone and audio-video controller for the council chambers. An unnamed staff member identified as the town's director of information technology and innovation, referred to during discussion as Director Plummer, explained the purchase would fund backend infrastructure allowing the town to stagger future camera and microphone upgrades rather than face a single roughly $60,000 replacement cost if existing equipment failed. Councilor DeBeathen-Brown moved to send the item to the Governance Subcommittee for a fuller plan before any purchase; Councilor Cooper argued for approving the current purchase as a low-cost fix addressing accessibility complaints already raised that night. Councilor Merritt said he wanted to hear from the town manager and see the item considered through normal budget channels. On a roll call, the council voted 4-3 to refer the item to the Governance Subcommittee: DeBeathen-Brown, Mahan, Merritt and Mayor Harrington in favor; Cooper, Oliver and Goodwin opposed. Councilor Waterhouse and Deputy Mayor Lloyd were not recorded voting. The matter will next be taken up by the Governance Subcommittee, which the mayor said would meet the following Monday.

Committee Appointments: One Tabled, Two Approved With Abstentions

The council considered Committee on Committees recommendations for the Board of Assessment Appeals, the Emergency Medical Systems Committee and the Youth Adult Council. Councilor Merritt objected to reappointing Board of Assessment Appeals members, arguing the board has not acted to correct what he called an unfair tax burden on certain residential property owners and should function independently of the town assessor. After procedural disagreement over whether to vote on the committees individually or together, Councilor Goodwin, who chairs the Committee on Committees, moved to table the Board of Assessment Appeals recommendation; that motion passed on a voice vote. Separately, the council then approved the Committee on Committees' recommendations for the Emergency Medical Systems Committee and the Youth Adult Council, each by roll call: DeBeathen-Brown, Mahan, Merritt, Goodwin and Mayor Harrington voting yes, with Cooper and Oliver abstaining on both, citing uncertainty about who the nominees were. Town Manager Alvin, speaking after the votes, said he believed it unfair for council members to question the qualifications of community volunteers on the dais without prior notice to them.

Town Manager's Report: Staff Departures and Audit Progress

Stewart's report, delivered on the town manager's behalf, announced the retirements of eight long-serving department heads and assistant directors effective this week under a council-approved retirement incentive plan: Deputy Town Manager Sharon Tai-Williams (21 years), Director of Senior Services Yvette Hugh Pinnell (41 years), Director of Social and Youth Services Camilla Hillian (26 years), Director of Human Resources Rosa Mateus (25 years), Director of Public Works Daniel Carter (11 years), Assistant Director of Social and Youth Services Dawn Cooper-Groger (25 years), Director of Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Services Dave Malesko (26 years), and Assistant Director of Human Resources Catherine Roberts (15 years). A recognition event is planned at a future quarterly town hall. Stewart also reported the fiscal 2025 audit is nearing completion pending a decision on a $250,000 state DECD grant extension related to town-center planning, and that the town is simultaneously prepping for the fiscal 2026 audit, targeting substantial completion by March 2027. She said bank and investment reconciliations are current through August 31, 2026, and that the finance department has completed three audits in roughly one year after a prior "financial crisis."

Mayor's Report: CIF Application Rejected

Mayor Harrington reported the town's Community Investment Fund application, seeking $11.8 million, was not selected from a statewide pool of $30 million. He said state officials, including the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house, encouraged Bloomfield to reapply but cited community "angst," ongoing litigation, including litigation with the Wintonbury Mall's owner, as a factor in the state's reluctance. He said a related congressional earmark application is unlikely to advance given the state's decision, and that the town is pursuing alternate paths through the Connecticut Municipal Development Authority and a possible downtown tax-increment-financing commission once a developer is named for the mall site. He also reported power was restored to Wintonbury Mall on September 26 after an extended outage, which he said was not caused by any town delay.

Mayor Anthony Harrington, presiding. Deputy Mayor Lloyd, absent (reported sick). Councilor Todd Cooper, participated remotely for portions of the meeting. Councilor Suzette DeBeathen-Brown, also spoke during citizen statements. Councilor Mahan. Councilor Michael Oliver. Councilor Joe Merritt. Councilor Darrell Goodwin, chair, Committee on Committees. Councilor Waterhouse, not recorded voting on at least one roll call. Superintendent Dr. Youngberg, Bloomfield Public Schools, presenting. Donna Stewart, Director of Finance, delivering the town manager's report. Town Manager Alvin (surname not given in available sources), participating remotely. Dr. Coleman, Director of Building and Land Use, presenting the fee-schedule item. Director of Information Technology and Innovation Plummer, presenting the technology item. India Rogers, Director of Operations and Communications, closing announcements. Public commenters: Suzette DeBeathen-Brown (as resident), Carol Riley (Maple Avenue), Rickford Curtin (declined to state address), Aaron Baird (28 Kenmore Road), Peter Frank (Mallory Ridge, editor, Bloomfield Community Dispatch), Kate Keefe (16 Breezy Knoll Drive), Dr. James Beffer (17 Terry Plains Road), Wendy Williams (48 Gab Road).

Bloomfield Community Dispatch — resident-run publication whose investigation into town FOI practices and an August 24 executive-session vote was cited by editor Peter Frank during citizen statements. Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) — grantor of a $250,000 town-center planning grant whose extension is pending and tied to the fiscal 2025 audit timeline. Connecticut Municipal Development Authority (CMDA) — identified by Mayor Harrington as an alternate funding path for mall-area redevelopment after the town's Community Investment Fund application was rejected. Freedom of Information Commission (state) — referenced by Peter Frank regarding an unexplained council appeal of an FOI Commission decision. Town Charter, Section 502 — cited by Dr. James Beffer as not authorizing the town manager to form committees, in his challenge to the Blue Ribbon Budget Development Committee. Blue Ribbon Budget Development Committee — town manager's advisory panel on the fiscal 2028 budget, first meeting scheduled October 6; membership undisclosed as of this meeting. Director of Building and Land Use's memorandum, dated August 18, 2026 — basis for the adopted building permit and land-use fee schedule. Committee on Committees — council body, chaired by Councilor Darrell Goodwin, that recommended appointments to the Board of Assessment Appeals, Emergency Medical Systems Committee, and Youth Adult Council.