In December 2019, Norwalk residents were presented with an extraordinary opportunity: a brand-new Norwalk High School with the State of Connecticut expected to pay 80% of eligible construction costs.
Standing at the announcement were State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, Mayor Harry Rilling, Superintendent Steven Adamowski and Kosta Diamantis—the powerful state official overseeing Connecticut’s school-construction program. Duff publicly thanked Diamantis for helping make the project possible.
Today, the project carries a $239 million budget.
And Kosta Diamantis is a convicted federal felon who fled to Greece rather than appear for sentencing after a jury found him guilty on 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators involving school-construction contracting elsewhere in Connecticut.
That does not prove corruption occurred in the Norwalk High School project. But it should generate some very uncomfortable questions.
How did this extraordinary deal come together? Who first proposed replacing Norwalk High School? When did those conversations begin? Who was involved before the public announcement? What exactly did Diamantis do to help make the project possible?
What communications took place between Diamantis, Duff and Norwalk officials? And how did Norwalk secure an extraordinary 80% reimbursement rate—far above its usual reimbursement percentage? Duff’s own materials described the normal rate as 32.5%.
These aren’t conspiracy theories. They are reasonable questions about one of the largest public construction projects in Norwalk’s history. And there is another question taxpayers deserve answered: What is Norwalk actually paying?
We repeatedly hear “80% state reimbursement.” In 2024, officials said that reimbursement would save Norwalk taxpayers $138 million.
That’s great.
But taxpayers deserve the entire calculation. Eighty percent of what? Which costs qualify? Which don’t? How much additional money has Norwalk committed? How much has been borrowed? What will the interest and debt service cost?
And when every construction expense, non-reimbursable dollar and debt payment is counted, what is the true final cost to Norwalk taxpayers?
Put it on one page. No political speeches. No groundbreaking photographs. No victory laps.
Show taxpayers the numbers and release the records surrounding the creation of the deal.
If Diamantis’s involvement was entirely appropriate, transparency should strengthen public confidence. If the 80% reimbursement is the extraordinary taxpayer victory its supporters say it is, a complete accounting should prove it.
Norwalk deserves a modern high school. Our students deserve excellent facilities. But a $239 million building is not, by itself, an education.
Teachers educate children. Paraprofessionals support them. Special-education services, classroom programs, books, technology, arts and athletics educate them.
Capital construction and school operating budgets are separate funding streams—but students don’t learn in funding streams. They learn in classrooms.
Senator Duff has publicly celebrated this project and the unprecedented reimbursement. That’s precisely why the questions should be easy to answer.
Who conceived the deal? What exactly did Diamantis do? What communications took place? How was 80% secured? And what will Norwalk taxpayers ultimately pay?
The public does not need speculation. We need records. We need numbers. We need answers.
From Hartford to Norwalk and now all the way to Greece, this story has changed dramatically since 2019.
Open the books. Release the records. Follow the money. Answer the questions.
A school is more than steel girders and a shiny new facade. It is its students, its teachers, its programs—and the public trust behind every dollar spent.
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