The proposal to move Montessori Magnet — currently housed in the Moylan and McDonough Schools — to a site in West Hartford has not been warmly received by all.

The school’s PTO says the proposed move was only made public on January 16, days before it was discussed at the January 20 Board of Education meeting. Superintendent Schiavino-Narvaez said she met with the School Governance Council twice, along with the PTO president. Parents had been contacted during discussions, she said.

While there has been a search for a permanent home for the magnet school for the past six years, not all in the school community had a location at the American School for the Deaf on North Main Street in West Hartford in mind.

Dr. Shelley Best, at the recent Board of Ed meeting, opposed this move: “Montessori education […] has the stereotype of being something that’s really available for the elite and the suburban,” she said, and moving it into the suburbs would only drive that home.

For staff shuttling between the two current sites, a single building is seen as a positive. Some faculty see the move as a way to bring “unity.” That this would be on eight acres and offer space for gardening is seen as a plus.

But, there has been concern that Hartford parent involvement would be lost by relocating the school to a building nearly four miles away. Beayanka Pinckney-Naraine, president of the MMCO executive board, conveyed concerns coming from one parent that
“we’d be taking our Montessori community out of the South End.” There were also concerns about the diversity of school staff.

Pinckney-Naraine suggest to the Board of Education that bus passes be provided to parents to help maintain their involvement.

“We’re not recognizing the struggle of so many parents,” Dr. Best said. “We’re operating from the context of our own privilege as if it’s easy to get to West Hartford.”

Public transportation in this area, Best said, is “not easy.”

She and Robert Cotto, Jr., who voted against what is essentially a non-binding letter of intent, had reservations about sending what they called one of the city’s best schools to another town.

Cotto argued that West Hartford would never take one of its top schools and move it to Hartford.

“Once it leaves [Hartford] it is no longer our school,” he said. Hartford may still own and operate it, but that is not how it will be perceived.

Best added that “public perception, once [the school] crosses the [city] line, it’s a school in West Hartford.”

“Don’t give your best stuff away,” she said.

Though this eventually passed, 4-2, Cotto explained that he does not currently support this because questions, particularly about transportation, were not adequately answered.

Beyond parent engagement, there had been the question about transportation for the PreK-3 and PreK-4 children. Currently, citing “liability” reasons, the Hartford Public Schools do not bus those youth within Hartford, though CREC apparently does not deal with the same liability concerns. When asked if anything would change in order to get those kids a few miles away, the most that could be said was that research was needed to see if this would be possible.

Board member Craig Stallings, who voted in favor, said he has “been watching the transportation budget shrink.”

Schiavino-Narvaez explained that there is precedent for schools operated by Hartford Public Schools to be located beyond city limits, citing ones in East Hartford and Manchester, but later called the Montessori Magnet relocation “an unusual situation” and not a trend. She said there were “limited places to go within the city” and that the West Hartford site “was just a good match.”

According to the Hartford Public Schools, they were looking for a building of approximately 45,000 ft² (or a site that would allow that size structure to be built on it). At the same time, they claimed the push was for a location in Zone 3 and/or close to the West Hartford line. The proposed site is neither in this zone nor on the line.

The enrollment process for this school, which is an integrated magnet, would remain the same, Schiavino-Narvaez said, with priority recruitment given to children living in Zone 3.

What last week’s vote allows is for negotiations to occur regarding purchase price of the property. City of Hartford funds will not be used to purchase the site; however, Hartford Public Schools will be responsible for all services on the property, such as snow removal. The appraisal is between $2.6-2.9M. City Council will have to approve purchase of the building and the State will have to approve the “incubation fund.”

Richard Wareing, BOE Chair who supported this, said “it’s not ideal” and that he “would be open to other proposals if there were other proposals that existed.”

The MMCO PTO will host one discussion session about the impact of this decision. This event will take place on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Moylan cafeteria. Food and childcare will be provided. Moylan is located at 101 Catherine Street.