BY ANDREAS YILMA
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
NAUGATUCK — Stone Academy students will soon be getting some help to finish out their career paths from Griffin Health Services after the private school closed earlier this year.
The Zoning Commission at its regular June 21 meeting voted to ratify a change of use application for a proposed training school storefront for the property at Mountview Plaza at 727 Rubber Ave.
Stone Academy in February abruptly closed its three campuses in Waterbury, West Haven and East Hartford due to noncompliance issues, including unqualified faculty, invalid student clinical experiences and improper attendance records.
The career school, which trained nurses and other medical-related positions, notified the state Office of Higher Education of its decision Feb. 6.
After initially agreeing to an audit to address eight noncompliance violations, the school informed the Office of Higher Education it would close instead.
Stone Academy had an enrollment of 155 students at its 101 Pierpont Road campus in Waterbury, while all three campuses totaled nearly 1,200.
The location at Mountview Plaza is where Griffin Health had its emergency vaccination clinic and has been working with the state in regard to Stone Academy.
Carter said Griffin Health is “working with the state to open up some classrooms to take on some of the students that were at Stone Academy. So they would like to just use the location that they have there and switch it over and be a school training center there.”
Griffin Health isn’t allowed to use the Stone Academy locations, Carter added.
Zoning Commission member Eileen M. Bronko said it’s a fantastic idea.
“I think that there’s a big need for the students that were at Stone Academy,” Carter said. “They took a bunch of them into their allied school program that they have in Derby already but the state saying you can take more.”
