New London — After two years of work and about $60,000 spent, the state has informed the school district it does not intend to fund a $1.9 million proposed project to link Riverside Park to the Winthrop Magnet Elementary School.

The news came as a disappointment to school officials who were trying to expand Winthrop's footprint with an outdoor learning environment.

The school district had tried to tie the proposal, which included outdoor classrooms, to the $28.7 million Winthrop school reconstruction project using leftover state funds. The cost of the Winthrop project, which was completed in 2012, was 95 percent state reimbursable.

The district, however, had never filed a formal grant application, or EDO49, to the state Board of Education for Riverside Park developments.

School Superintendent Manuel Rivera said the state Department of Administrative Services, which provides funding for school projects, had asked the city to either provide evidence the park plan was part of the original school project or apply for funding for a new project.

Filing a formal grant request at that point, Rivera said, "would have been a foolhardy move," since the proposal was not originally part of the school project when the city school district applied for state funding.

The original idea to include the park plan as a phase of the school project was sent to a consultant with the state Board of Education in November 2014 by Interim Superintendent Richard P. Foye. The letter describes the rationale for the Riverside plan being included as part of the Winthrop project but was not an official application.

Despite it not being included in the original concept, the school district had continued to argue that the park proposal cost was within what was promised for the Winthrop school project, Rivera said.

Konstantinos Diamantis, the director of the Office of School Construction Grants and Review for the state Department of Administrative Services, said it would be unreasonable for any school district in the state to expect to use unexpended funds on a new project not included in an original application.

"When a (school) project comes in under budget, those funds that are unexpended, they belong to the state of Connecticut and state taxpayers," Diamantis said. "The reason the funds are allocated is because of the estimated costs."

Unexpended funds go back into other school building projects, he said.

City officials don't plan to give up yet on the plan.

John Satti, chairman of the school building and maintenance committee, last month appointed committee members Martha Bauduccio and Kenric Hanson to lead a delegation to go to the state to explain the importance of the park plan for the school.

Plans developed for Riverside Park included outdoor classrooms for STEM-related hands-on instruction with educational partners, sensory trails, gardens and space for bird studies and tree tours. The idea was to provide outdoor links from what the students are learning in the classroom to the environment.

Mayor Michael Passero said the plans would have also alleviated serious traffic problems in the area in part by connecting Grove Street with Riverside Heights Drive.

In addition to the money spent developing plans for the park project, the city had deeded a portion of the 18-acre park to the school and in 2014 the City Council authorized spending $925,000 for complementary work at the park. Finance Director Don Gray said about $108,000 of that has been used to date.

Passero said the state-funded and local projects are interconnected.

The school district still could decide to apply for a new project, but if it is accepted by the state, it could take years and would be funded at a maximum of 80 percent reimbursement rate, according to a report by Diana McNeil, a Capitol Region Education Council project manager working for the district.

Satti said the delegation has not yet met with state officials. A timeline for that meeting is unclear. The building and maintenance committee, he said, have debated the merits of approaching the state considering the city is still closing out the Winthrop and Nathan Hale school building projects and has major construction projects yet to start.

g.smith@theday.com