BET Democrats killed the first interim appropriation of FY27, blocking a $250,000 study to relocate Board of Education staff out of Havemeyer.
One day after the RTM approved the FY27 budget, the BET Budget Committee took up the first interim appropriation of the new fiscal year: $250,000 for a feasibility and test-fit study to relocate Board of Education staff out of the Havemeyer Building. Both Republicans on the Committee voted yes. Both Democrats voted no. The motion failed 2–2.
It now falls to the Democrat BET Chair to decide whether the full BET takes up the appropriation. He should.
The vote is disappointing on its own. It is shocking in context.
This term of the BET has seen extraordinary bipartisan cooperation. There were no tie-breaking votes. The FY27 budget went to the RTM with unanimous BET support. Republicans took real political risk, backing a full operating budget and a long list of deferred capital projects. When the Democrats faced their first test as the majority on an interim request, they balked.
“Delaying this is not serving the Town very well, and should not happen. We should move forward. Now is the time.”
BET REPUBLICAN CAUCUS
What Havemeyer Is, and Why This Matters
Havemeyer was built as a school in the early 1890s. It has served as Board of Education offices since the end of World War II. For five decades, the building’s shortcomings have been obvious to everyone who works there or visits. The deficiencies have only grown worse.
Talk has been plentiful. Action has not.
First Selectman Fred Camillo decided to change that. In 2023, he convened a bipartisan Advisory Committee on the Havemeyer Building. Its report documented the conditions and recommended relocation of the staff. In 2024, the Town issued an RFP soliciting outside proposals to repurpose the building. A bipartisan Evaluation Committee reviewed the responses. A public information forum took feedback. Every step pointed to the same conclusion: before Havemeyer can be repurposed, the BOE staff has to move.
Town Hall and the Superintendent’s Office have spent years quietly evaluating alternatives, both on Town-owned property and in private buildings. Private rentals would saddle the school district with annual lease costs that don’t make sense. The most promising option that has emerged is locating BOE staff at Town Hall, either in existing space or in an addition behind the current facility.
That is what the $250,000 was supposed to study. Feasibility. Test fit. Parking. Whether the concept works at all.
What the Democrats Said
Their stated objections were vague and, frankly, hard to take seriously.
One Democrat member talked about “priorities” and the “timing” and the “steps,” and noted the request was not in the original FY27 budget. The other called for a “proper space utilization study for the town as a whole” before moving forward.
Superintendent Toni Jones answered the first concern directly. The interim appropriation route was suggested to the BOE in lieu of including the request in the FY27 budget. The Democrats are now using the absence of the item from a budget they helped shape as a reason to vote against it.
On the second point, the head of Public Works, Jim Michael, told the Committee that Town Hall already conducts an ongoing space-utilization analysis. The Board of Education’s own facilities study will deliver results by early June. Dr. Jones offered to roll a Town Hall space study into the feasibility work at no additional cost. The Democrats voted no anyway.
The Bottom Line
The conditions at Havemeyer are real. No air conditioning in much of the building. Boards on windows. Heat that runs above 85 degrees in winter. An assistant working in 100-degree heat because she has no access to AC. Staff who have tripped on the stairs and torn Achilles tendons moving offices. The Superintendent has had to bring in environmentalists to reassure employees the building is safe to occupy.
This is not a luxury request. It is a $250,000 study to figure out whether a sensible, town-owned solution can work. After three decades of talk, two bipartisan committees, an RFP, an evaluation process, and a public forum, the Democrats’ answer is: not yet.
Bipartisanship cannot be a one-way street. The BET Republicans worked across the aisle in good faith all year. The BET Democrats’ first major decision after the budget passed was to block a modest, well-justified interim appropriation on procedural grounds that don’t hold up.
We expect better. So do the taxpayers, and so do the BOE employees who have been working in those conditions for far too long.
