Photo is courtesy of  Andy Hart

The Clark Turnaround Committee was informed Tuesday that more site visits would be possible, and that the Friendship School model (use of the word “model” has been debated) is not the one that must be picked. As of Friday, parents, teachers, and community members were fighting for the ability to do just that, as a press conference was held to shine light on the need for more time, better communication with the State Department of Education and Hartford Board of Education staffers, and self-determination.

Tentative meeting dates, including those for school site visits, were discussed at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon at the Clark School. According to the agenda, school site visits in New Haven and New York City are possibilities at the end of March and early April.

After SDE representative Andrew Ferguson reprimanded the parents, teachers, and community members on the committee, saying “there has to be urgency from everyone at this table,” teacher Kimberly Daly responded, “to be honest […] we were not given the models to look at.” Daly, referring to her notes, said that at the February 19th meeting, she asked that an appointment be made for the Turnaround Committee to visit an Expeditionary Learning model school — Hartford schools Moylan and McDonough already use this model, and the Sánchez school will be fully using it in 2014-2015 — yet, she said, no appointment has been scheduled. Clark community members also requested a visit of Betances, another school in the district. A previous site visit there did occur, but that was before the Turnaround Committee had been formed.

Mille Soto, a parent and PTO member on the Turnaround Committee, echoed the desire to keep looking. “I’m not saying ‘no’ to Friendship,” she said, “but we was promised options.” After checking out other models, she said, “maybe we won’t like what’s out there.”

An expanded version of this story will be in an upcoming edition of the Hartford News, a community newspaper that can be found in locations like City Hall, the Hartford Public Library, and at various spots around town.