The city’s fire marshal sent an abatement order Friday to the parish priest at St. Michael’s Church regarding fire code violations at the former St. Michael’s School at 73 Derby Ave.
The school, which housed grades 4 through 8, closed in June, when the students were moved to the St. Mary’s School-St. Michael’s on Seymour Avenue.
The building at 73 Derby Ave. had four outstanding fire code violations when it closed in June, according to Derby Fire Marshal Phil Hawks.
Those four violations, the most serious of which regarded the lack of “fire rated” doors and walls in a stairwell, were issued in May 2008.
Derby allowed the school to operate with the fire code violations in place, with the understanding the school was going to close in May 2009.
However, a new school opened in the building in September — to the surprise of city officials.
The school is called the Gateway Learning Academy. It is an alternative program for high school students from New Haven. A call seeking comment was left for Al Garza at the school Friday.
The school has just four students and has a one-year lease on the building from St. Michael’s Church, according to the Rev. Roman Gorowski.
Church officials did not notify city officials about the new school — nor were they required to do so.
However, members of the Derby Board of Alderman at their meeting Thursday grumbled that a phone call would have been nice.
“I saw the sign the other day and said ‘Wow, that’s news to me,’” said Third Ward Alderman Joe Bomba.
It was also news to Hawks, the city’s fire marshal.
He just inspected the four-story building again — and found the number of fire code violations expanded to nineteen.
Most of the violations are routine and should be quickly fixed. They include unlit exit signs and fire extinguishers that need to be checked.
However, someone has to come up with a plan to address the issues in the stairwell, which could be a fairly expensive construction project, Hawks said.
The school will be allowed to operate, but the school or the church have to start making progress with the fire code issues, Hawks said.
Gorowski indicated issues such as that will be fixed by the school, as per the lease agreement.
Hawks said he sent the letter to the registered property owner.
“I don’t get involved in leases,” he said.
