For its preschool-through-eighth grade, the Kinsella Magnet School for the Performing Arts has a permanent location on Van Block Avenue, in the Sheldon-Charter Oak neighborhood. It has expanded to create a high school, currently located temporarily on Locust Street, one mile away in the South Meadows, a predominately industrial area of Hartford.
The Hartford Board of Education had planned to vote Monday evening on a permanent site for this high school but the vote on this and approval of a lease agreement for the Weaver Culinary Arts Academy with Lincoln Culinary Institute were tabled until the meeting next week. City Council already approved $33 million for construction of a new Kinsella high school facility.
The Superintendent’s suggestion that the Kinsella Magnet School for the Performing Arts High School be built on City-owned property adjacent to SAND Elementary School (America’s Choice at SAND) on Main Street did not go over well. During public comment, not a single person spoke in favor of this site in the Clay Arsenal neighborhood, which would be between 2 and 2.5 miles away from the school on Van Block Avenue, depending on which route one travels. The site near SAND is approximately four blocks north of Downtown. This would be just over one mile from Hartford Stage; Kinsella’s permanent Van Block site is 1.4 miles away from Hartford Stage. One complaint issued at Monday’s Board of Education meeting was that this site would be too far from the city’s performing arts venues.
Linda Feliciano of East Hartford, whose daughter attends Kinsella, said “I don’t feel safe in this area,” referring to the proposed site. In a letter to the Board of Ed and at the meeting, Feliciano cited “gang issues” as a fear; she wrote that current Kinsella high school students had a “fear” of “mixing” with peers in the “north” part of Hartford. She claimed that Kinsella currently experiences no fights.
Another Kinsella parent echoed this concern for safety; hailing from Middletown, she said she does not want her daughter to have to go through metal detectors at school, something she felt was inevitable of a school located in what many parents could only vaguely identify as the “north end.” At the Board of Education meeting held at the Journalism and Media Academy Magnet School on Tower Avenue, it was clear from comments that several parents were geographically challenged and thought the meeting and the site adjacent to SAND Elementary were in close proximity; in truth, these two “north end” schools are as far apart as SAND Elementary is from Kinsella on Van Block Avenue.
Levey Kardulis had a few things to say to these parents: “my neighborhood is a traditional Latin King neighborhood.”
“If you’re afraid [of any place in Hartford], it’s time to go,” Kardulis said.
Other parents cited more rational reasons for opposing this move. Hanna Petrisko, who has three children at Kinsella and is the SGC co-chair, said “I just don’t think that all [possibilities for] sites have been exhausted.” Petrisko also sent a letter to the Board, saying that the move across town would “undermine the progress Kinsella has made to build our school community.” She also raised questions about the process for site selection, saying that a Building Committee meeting was supposed to happen this month, but that if this did take place, the SGC was never informed of it. In her letter, she asked that the vote on this be tabled until all other site options had been considered.
Several other parents requested the same: explore other options that are closer to Van Block Avenue so that the elementary and high schools can share resources.
According to a document issued by Dr. Donald Slater, Chief Operating Officer, and Dr. Kishimoto, HPS administration has investigated several sites over two years; these have included the MDC Building, Hartford Club, buildings and a parking lot near the Bushnell, 200 Constitution Plaza, Colt Complex, and property in Colt Park.
Not all speaking on Monday supported the expansion of the magnet school, regardless of location. Hyacinth Yennie said, “we have too many schools in Hartford.” Instead of having specialized schools, such as Kinsella, she said that all schools should have solid arts and music programs. “We are more segregated now than ever,” Yennie told the BOE.
Levey Kardulis, the head custodian at Bulkeley High School, agreed. He said “never will I be in favor of specialized schools.” These “rob” children of a traditional school experience, he said.
In other remarks, he hinted at the inequality between traditional schools and magnets, bringing into question the number of 18-year-olds in ninth grade; he said he knows this is not the case at magnets, especially at places like Capital Prep Magnet School. He questioned how many English Language Learners and students with learning disabilities were being enrolled in the magnets.
Yennie also suggested that magnets were getting special treatment. She called out the superintendent (absent from the meeting), the Board of Education, and the Director of Communications for the Hartford Public Schools for not publicly recognizing the students at the Academy of Engineering and Green Technology at Hartford High School. The students designed, built, and shipped wind turbines to Nepal. Of this oversight, she asked, “is it because they’re not a magnet school or what?”
Also in public comment, several Hartford parents supported the six-month contract with Hartford Parent University; this contract of $79, 166 is meant to support family engagement “in learning to increase student success and close achievement gaps,” according to the Hartford Board of Education.
At next week’s meeting, the only public comment permitted will be that dealing with Kinsella and the $4.6 million contract over four years for the lease of space on two floors of Lincoln Culinary Institute for the Culinary Arts Academy while construction is underway at Weaver High School. The Special Meeting of the Board of Education will be held at Museum Academy at Wish School, 350 Barbour Street. 5:30pm.
