School Clusterschmuck Continues

Starr's proposal to close Stark inflames debate By Donna Porstner
Stamford Advocate 04/29/2008
STAMFORD - Elected officials are unhappy with the latest school closing plan, saying flip-flopping and indecision is needlessly upsetting residents.

Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr on Thursday night proposed closing Julia A. Stark Elementary on Glenbrook Road and moving Toquam Magnet Elementary students and teachers into the building.

Whether some or all Stark students would be allowed to finish there is unclear. Starr said the Board of Education could phase out Stark's program gradually or redistribute its students and staff all at once.

The plan came as a surprise to many because Stark was not one of five schools the school board's Redistricting Committee had been considering for closure. Members only two weeks earlier had narrowed the list of schools it would consider closing to two - Toquam and Rogers magnet elementary schools.

Pauline Rauh, chairwoman of the Board of Representative's Education Committee, said Starr caught parents and school board members off-guard by making the presentation during a meeting in which Toquam and Rogers were on the agenda. Stark parents should have been told their school would be discussed, she said.

"It came without notice to the very constituents who should have been informed," said Rauh, a former school principal. "I found that distressing."

Parents across the city worry their child's school could be next, officials said.

"It's really detrimental to the well-being of the school district to have a school-closing-of-the-month theory, especially when so many of the Rogers parents had embraced the concept of closing Rogers and moving to the interdistrict magnet school," said state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford.

McDonald, a Glenbrook resident and Stark graduate, said constituents have been asking him to intervene in the redistricting process for months and he kept quiet until learning one of Starr's reasons for shuttering Stark is the school's failure to meet state testing standards.

By saying state sanctions are increasing for Stark under No Child Left Behind legislation, the superintendent is implying the state is angling to close the school, he said. McDonald said he spoke with the state education commissioner, who confirmed that is not the case.

"It was an extraordinary announcement for the superintendent to unleash on the community without any forewarning, without any involvement of parent groups or teachers who try to improve the school," McDonald said. "And to announce it at a public meeting when you infer it is the result of state involvement, when that's apparently untrue, is bizarre behavior. It's not the right way to run an operation like this."

Starr said he came up with Stark plan because it would increase the number of magnet seats and would allow the city to have three elementary schools south of Interstate 95, where there's a large density of students. Adding a third school would mean fewer low-income students would be bused across town to attend school, he said.

"I think there are some questions to ask about who gets bused in the city of Stamford," Starr said. "I simply want to raise that issue to the Board of Education so they understand the implications. That's what a superintendent does."

At the same time, he said, the redistricting process opened the door for structural changes at Stark, which could be required to make adjustments if test scores don't improve.

"I never in any way, shape or form said the state plans to close Stark school. However, there is certainly increased state accountability legislation that we are preparing for," Starr said.

The district could be required to make staffing changes at Stark, bring in an outside management firm or convert the building to a charter school if test scores again don't meet state goals next year, Starr said.

City Rep. Jerry Pia, a former school board member who represents Glenbrook, said transferring Stark students to another building is not the answer.

"You don't move children so the overall score of the school looks good," he said. "You set up programs and you teach them how to learn."

Rauh said Starr "put the whole town in a state of unrest with this presentation" and residents are disappointed with the school board's indecision.

"Confidence in what they're doing and how they're doing it has been shaken," she said.

McDonald said the Stark plan only made matters worse.

"It's a really unique skill to infuriate every contingent of parents in one meeting," he said.

Starr said it's not fair to blame him for introducing another option late in the process when it was Mayor Dannel Malloy who made the board reconsider its plan to close Toquam earlier this year.

Malloy removed $2.8 million earmarked in next year's capital budget to furnish the new interdistrict magnet school in the Cove, forcing members to reconsider moving Toquam students into the new building.

Malloy favored closing an older school building and came back with the plan to close Rogers and move those students to the new environmental science school.

The Board of Education should start over and hire a consultant to come up with a redistricting plan, Rauh said.

"You need objectivity and expertise," she said.

Board of Education member Rosanne McManus said hiring a consultant would only delay the process by 12 months while an outsider learns about the district and neighborhoods.

"I don't think we need a consultant. I think we are ready to go," she said. "The redistricting plan will move fairly easy once we decide which school to close."

The board has used consultants in the past and there were complaints then as well, Starr said.

"My recollection was folks weren't happy with that either," he said. "Redistricting is hard, hard work and I think are experiencing that now."

Redistricting Committee Chairwoman Susan Nabel did not return a phone call seeking comment.