Funding Available for School Office Space Renovations

The city is piecing together funding to pay for renovations to 77 Webster Ave. for use as school department office space.

“The school department has leased this property at 77 Webster Avenueto serve as administrative space to free up space in the school buildings for student instruction,” said City Manager Thomas Ambrosino. “This new location will be the future home to the Special Education Department, the Chelsea Virtual Learning Academy, and the district’s curriculum coordinators who work with all schools.”

Additionally, the district’s homeless student and data coordinators will be located in the space, along with the ELL tester who assesses students who are new to the district. Altogether, there will be 35 school staffers in the new space.

“The requested capital funding will be used to construct a purpose-built space for these staff members,” said Ambrosino. “The lease can be extended up to 25 years, so the improvements will be amortized over a long period of use.”

Ambrosino said the school department has the funds necessary for the work, so no new appropriations will be needed for the project. The funds are available either through school capital project accounts where the projects were completed and surplus money remains, or were paid by the school department through an alternative funding source during the pandemic shutdown.

The City Council will take up the transfers, totalling $1,011,665 at a future finance subcommittee meeting before taking a final vote.

In other council business on Monday night, Council President Roy Avellaneda introduced an order for a home rule petition regarding five new liquor licenses that will be awarded to the city as a result of the 2020 federal census.

The petition for the on-premises liquor licenses would set aside five licenses for hotels, restaurants, and function halls with a capacity of 100 or more. Those five licenses would not be able to be sold between establishments but would have to be returned to the city if not in use. Any potential applicant would have to go through an application with the city for the use of the licenses.

Avellaneda said the petition will be scheduled for a public hearing and subcommittee meeting for further discussion.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *