Debate targets school location

A Warren resident says a building’s environment affects the education of students.

BY MAYSOON ABDELRASUL

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Mauro Vescera is hoping that the last of the new buildings for Warren City Schools will be built on Parkman Road Northwest, so that he doesn’t have to close his business.

Vescera owns Sorrento’s Restaurant, a fixture on Parkman Road for 35 years. “I need that school to make my living,” he said during Tuesday’s board of education meeting.

The board has yet to determine the location of its last K-8 school. The site debate is between the Parkman Road location near the Trumbull Plaza and the McGuffey school site off Tod Avenue Northwest. Vescera’s restaurant is across from the Trumbull Plaza

At last week’s board meeting, members voted unanimously for a K-8 school to be built on the Jefferson Elementary site on the West Side.

Vescera is not the only community member urging the board to build the final school on Parkman Road. Wetlands mitigation issues have plagued the open land on Parkman Road owned by the school district.

City Councilman Fiore Dippolito, D-1st, also favors Parkman Road. Dippolito said the “Parkman Road site is the best choice for the building of the school.”

Listing reasons

Dippolito and Councilwoman Susan Hartman, D-7th, put together a list of reasons why they believe the Parkman site is best. Dippolito handed it out at the board meeting. Hartman was not in attendance.

One reason they believe it’s the best site is because it “is more centrally located for students in both the 1st and 7th wards.”

They are asking the board to move swiftly in making its decisions and begin building on the Parkman site.

They agree with Vescera and said that “all current businesses along the Parkman Road corridor could benefit from the activity of the school.”

West Side resident Clyde Wilson also handed out a paper at the meeting: He wants people to vote for him to be on the school board. He said he’s upset that the board went ahead and started building the second East Side school (Willard Avenue) before building one on the West Side. Lincoln School on Atlantic Street N.E. opens Sept. 4.

He said he visited the schools on the West Side including Horace Mann and Emerson elementaries and described them as “depressing.” He believes the building the students are in does affect their education.

“Environment builds character, or destroys it,” he said.