The proposal to move Montessori Magnet — currently housed in the Moylan and McDonough Schools — to a site in West Hartford has not been warmly received by all.
The school’s PTO says the proposed move was only made public on January 16, days before it was discussed at the January 20 Board of Education meeting. Superintendent Schiavino-Narvaez said she met with the School Governance Council twice, along with the PTO president. Parents had been contacted during discussions, she said.
While there has been a search for a permanent home for the magnet school for the past six years, not all in the school community had a location at the American School for the Deaf on North Main Street in West Hartford in mind.
Dr. Shelley Best, at the recent Board of Ed meeting, opposed this move: “Montessori education […] has the stereotype of being something that’s really available for the elite and the suburban,” she said, and moving it into the suburbs would only drive that home.
For staff shuttling between the two current sites, a single building is seen as a positive. Some faculty see the move as a way to bring “unity.” That this would be on eight acres and offer space for gardening is seen as a plus.
But, there has been concern that Hartford parent involvement would be lost by relocating the school to a building nearly four miles away. Beayanka Pinckney-Naraine, president of the MMCO executive board, conveyed concerns coming from one parent that
“we’d be taking our Montessori community out of the South End.” There were also concerns about the diversity of school staff.
Pinckney-Naraine suggest to the Board of Education that bus passes be provided to parents to help maintain their involvement.
“We’re not recognizing the struggle of so many parents,” Dr. Best said. “We’re operating from the context of our own privilege as if it’s easy to get to West Hartford.”
Public transportation in this area, Best said, is “not easy.”
She and Robert Cotto, Jr., who voted against what is essentially a non-binding letter of intent, had reservations about sending what they called one of the city’s best schools to another town.
Cotto argued that West Hartford would never take one of its top schools and move it to Hartford.
“Once it leaves [Hartford] it is no longer our school,” he said. Hartford may still own and operate it, but that is not how it will be perceived.
Best added that “public perception, once [the school] crosses the [city] line, it’s a school in West Hartford.”
“Don’t give your best stuff away,” she said.
Though this eventually passed, 4-2, Cotto explained that he does not currently support this because questions, particularly about transportation, were not adequately answered.
Beyond parent engagement, there had been the question about transportation for the PreK-3 and PreK-4 children. Currently, citing “liability” reasons, the Hartford Public Schools do not bus those youth within Hartford, though CREC apparently does not deal with the same liability concerns. When asked if anything would change in order to get those kids a few miles away, the most that could be said was that research was needed to see if this would be possible.
Board member Craig Stallings, who voted in favor, said he has “been watching the transportation budget shrink.”
Schiavino-Narvaez explained that there is precedent for schools operated by Hartford Public Schools to be located beyond city limits, citing ones in East Hartford and Manchester, but later called the Montessori Magnet relocation “an unusual situation” and not a trend. She said there were “limited places to go within the city” and that the West Hartford site “was just a good match.”
According to the Hartford Public Schools, they were looking for a building of approximately 45,000 ft² (or a site that would allow that size structure to be built on it). At the same time, they claimed the push was for a location in Zone 3 and/or close to the West Hartford line. The proposed site is neither in this zone nor on the line.
The enrollment process for this school, which is an integrated magnet, would remain the same, Schiavino-Narvaez said, with priority recruitment given to children living in Zone 3.
What last week’s vote allows is for negotiations to occur regarding purchase price of the property. City of Hartford funds will not be used to purchase the site; however, Hartford Public Schools will be responsible for all services on the property, such as snow removal. The appraisal is between $2.6-2.9M. City Council will have to approve purchase of the building and the State will have to approve the “incubation fund.”
Richard Wareing, BOE Chair who supported this, said “it’s not ideal” and that he “would be open to other proposals if there were other proposals that existed.”
The MMCO PTO will host one discussion session about the impact of this decision. This event will take place on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Moylan cafeteria. Food and childcare will be provided. Moylan is located at 101 Catherine Street.
Natasha Lombardi
Why is the city looking into sites out side of the city, when we have vacant buidlings within our boundaries. One example is the school that has been vacant for a number of years on Main Street in the South Park area directly behind the St Patrick – St Anthony church near the corner of Main and Park. It is a beautiful old buidling which is already designed for the purpose needed.
Kerri Provost
The BOE Chair claims that the City of Hartford is refusing to take more properties off the tax roll, but it sounds like the property you are talking about near St. Peter’s is already not contributing to the tax base.
The Chair also stated that the City is not willing to bond money for a facility. And, he said, that the City has not helped in locating a possible building/site in Zone 3 (south west chunk of Hartford)
Jane Macy-Painter
This news is personally upsetting because after spending a ton of time and energy on wading through the lottery process for our soon-to-be preschooler we just submitted the application and this was one of our choices. We went on a tour there and the staff clearly had no information about when they’ve be relocating, but we were told the timeline was unknown because they had yet to find a site and it was important that they stay in the neighborhood. As a parent who will not have a car during the school day the location of my child’s school comes seriously into consideration. This doesn’t even touch on the other issues at play, such as the fact that we feel strongly our daughter go to a school in Hartford and NOT in the suburbs. Sigh.
Kerri Provost
Thanks for commenting, Jane. I didn’t realize this was one of L’s top choices.
Nancy Schwartz
Hi Jane – I believe that applicants are able to login to the RSCO website and review/edit and resubmit an existing application any time prior to the February 27th deadline.
Hope this helps!
Justin
Taking a look at policy decisions and plans made this past year, from lack of adequate affordable housing quotas downtown in new developments, to the stadium, to the lack of funds for capital improvements at schools and now this latest ploy it seems like the whole game of development and improvement in Hartford hinges on acquiring new young people (who don’t have kids ‘yet’ i.e highly educated and with $) and trying to stop supporting the folks who currently live here. Of a piece with this trend, I listened to the Mayor tell The South West and Behind the Rocks NRZ last week that the reason all of his emphasis was on downtown in the past couple years is because its the primary jobs generator. But the good jobs in downtown are mostly done by suburbanites.
Leslie hammond
what other sites were considered in hartford ? Is there public information about that ? As someone mentioned peters school has been empty -I pray every effort was made to stay in hartford -just doesn’t make sense to go so far away -keep on keeping on!
Kerri Provost
The Board of Ed’s discussion of this last week did not name any other potential sites. The claim was made that none had been found.
There are many large, long-vacant buildings in this area of town, so the reasoning can’t be just that they found no site. The sites are there.
Leslie hammond
Question -is Montessori school of greater hartford at amer school of the deaf now ? So will they be merging ? I would really like to know more about this -I was always do thrilled to know hartford had Montessori schools right here -cx
Kerri Provost
The BOE did indicate that there is a Montessori already on site, but said nothing about the potential of them to merge. I’m surprised that was actually not brought up at the meeting.
dave r
The Montessori that is already located at ASD is an expensive private school. So merging would be more salt in the wound. What a mess.
Jennifer S.
Could be worse. In 1969 they were considering moving Weaver to Batterson Park in Farmington.
Tony C
n general I’m bummed how far flung magnet schools damage the concept of a community school, since it pulls the students away (physically further away) from their parents. 4 miles may sound like a short distance, but not in Hartford city streets with a traffic lights. And with a bus ride, it could take over an hour – if you’re lucky enough to have buses running to West Hartford when you need it.
In many cases their parents may not have the transportation options (or spare time) that are often taken for granted. This plan doesn’t seem to take the value of the school “in Hartford” into account..
Jane Macy-Painter
The bus ride to ASD is easy in the sense that the bus stops right there on N. Main at the entrance. HOWEVER the school is set really far back from the road. My ASL class there is in a building that takes me 3 full minutes to drive to from the time I turn in the drive. That complicates matters!
Cecilia Schlossberg
There is a private Montessori school on that campus (I am surprised that wasn’t mentioned also) and it is a big concern in the Montessori community because we want Montessori schools to be spread out so more students have an opportunity to have a Montessori education. I also see a lot of potential conflicts because it is a private and public Montessori school on the same campus.
Cecilia Schlossberg
The MMCO PTO meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday, January 29, 2015 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Moylan cafeteria.
Kerri Provost
Thanks!