Those who attended last week’s Board of Education meeting may have come away believing that the Moylan Montessori community largely supported the move of the school from Hartford to West Hartford, even if only a handful of teachers and parents were present to speak. Most of the questions were made through the PTO or came from members of the school board.
As it turns out, that vote to go ahead and pursue the site at the American School for the Deaf has not been received so well.
Stakeholders are circulating a petition asking for that decision to be suspended. They say that parents were only notified a few days before the vote and were not given full disclosure that the invite to “ask questions” or “show support” before the Board of Education was going to be tied to something so binding, so soon.
Beyond lack of appropriate notice, they are not thrilled with the idea of a Hartford school moving to “the heart of West Hartford,” and are asking another site be found either in Zone 3 or within half a mile of it. They say the ASD site is too far and in an area that does not reflect the demographics of the school’s base.
Even with transportation provided, they question how unified the school will remain when students who are bused are marginalized. There are questions of how many families would choose a school outside of the community; some current Montessori Magnet families have already said they will not be able to continue with their kids at the school if it moves four miles away.
At the meeting last week, the superintendent cited precedence for our public schools being located outside of city limits (Great Path Academy at Manchester Community College and Pathways Academy of Technology and Design in East Hartford), but parents have countered this, saying that no Hartford elementary schools have been relocated to the suburbs.
Here are the petitions so you can see exactly what the Montessori Magnet/Moylan Montessori community is asking for:
Final Moylan Petition Letter (4)
In Spanish:
Final Moylan Petition Letter Spanish
