Tuesday, April 29, 2008

School Clusterschmuck Continues

The Superintendent just proposed closing a different school... kinda out of nowhere. I'm just going to give you a few quotes from the Advocate article, because I vowed never to write about the subject again.

Starr's proposal to close Stark inflames debate
By Donna Porstner 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... 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...

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...” said state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford.

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."

...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.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COMMENT!!!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

But you missed the best quote of all from the story!

From Andrew McDonald, our state senator, a Stark grad and Glenbrook resident, on Starr's last second proposal:

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

I couldn't have put it better myself.

patty said...

Believe it or not, I have no comment either. I don't have much more outrage to put towards this situation.

Anonymous said...

It will be a miracle if they are able to get all this school mess sorted out before Princess is ready for kindergarten in 09!

Stamford Talk said...

Totally with you Patty. Maybe the board/mayor/superintendent's plan is to wear us down so we just give up.

Mama K, exciting! Will the school shuffling affect Princess?

Anonymous said...

Andrew McDonald rocks. He is 100% spot-on with his comments. I don't even have a child in school, and I've been incredibly upset by the "closing of the month" mess. I can't imagine how much more upsetting this is for families, kids, and teachers.

It would be a travesty to close Stark School, and sadly its student population in general doesn't have parents with the kind of political clout that parents from magnet schools or North Stamford have. I hope that with Senator McDonald's support, this can be stopped.

Jeff Herz said...

The problem we in the magnet schools, that have no natural distict, is we have no single person on the board of representatives and no legislators from Hartford who are willing to stand up and defend a school that is actually successful.

Andrew McDonald has remained quiet until the district he represents is being effected. He had no reason to say anything until his constituents are being impacted. So far it only seems that Mayor Malloy is the only person looking out for the entire good of Stamford, and not some small subsection of our fine community.