Creating 2 Magnet Schools Could Ease Greenwich's Racial Imbalance

The creation of two new magnet neighborhood schools is part of the proposed solution Greenwich Public Schools Superintendent William McKersie wants to explore as a way to resolve the district’s racial imbalance and school space utilization issues.

McKersie said the proposal to create partial magnet schools at the Parkway and North Street elementary schools is the result of the impassioned pleas made by parents during a series of public forums last spring and earlier this summer, and merits further review by an advisory committee that includes several of the elementary school principals.

During the 2-hour 40-minute work session at Cos Cob School, members of the Board of Education posed dozens of questions and made requests for more information on the proposal that’s designed to reduce overcrowding at New Lebanon School and bring both New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue schools into compliance with Connecticut student racial balance regulations. About 50 parents attended as did state Rep. Steve Walko (R-150) and state Sen. L. Scott Frantz (R-36).

Minorities comprise about a third of each school’s population, well above the state-mandated 25 percent or less ratio. The goal of McKersie’s proposal is to draw students from both Hamilton Avenue and New Lebanon and through a choice-based system, have families elect to send their children to new magnet schools at North Street and Parkway, facilities where the attendance continues to wane.

“We want to benefit all students by going with a choice-based model that allows flexibility as we balance 11 elementary schools, to round out the enrollment needs,” McKersie said. “This is a preliminary proposal,” McKersie said.   

Both he and Board Chair Leslie Moriarty said the aim of such a proposal is to eliminate the need for a forced redistricting or reassignment of students to both meet space utilization needs and the state’s racial balance regulation. If the board fails to adopt a choice-based elementary system, as many as 800 students could be reassigned to schools outside their home school attendance zone.

If North Street and Parkway were to become magnet schools, the district would have six magnet schools—schools with specific learning themes. Creating magnet schools also would help the district close the achievement gap that exists at New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue where there are greater numbers of minority students whose families’ primary language is not English, officials have said.

“We want to establish a plan to close the achievement gap district wide and focus on helping Ham Ave and New Leb narrow that gap,” McKersie said. “The closing of achievement gap by 10 points is good while proportion of low income students increases. But that’s not good enough.”

The district also will review how to create more classroom space at New Lebanon where some classes are taught on the auditorium stage and student supplies are stored in hallways for the coming school year. Long-term, board said they must decide how to decrease overcrowding and racial imbalance while improving student standardized test scores. 

To determine how popular cross-town commutes to schools outside of their attendance zones would be with parents, the district is poised to hire a consulting firm to create online and in-person surveys and conduct focus groups with parents. McKersie said the district received seven responses to its Request for Proposals (RFP) on July 29.

McKersie and his advisory committee hope to select the consulting firm—which will probably be paid about $20,000—in the next week.

The board will hold its next public discussion on Aug. 29 at Greenwich High School when McKersie is expected to present more detailed information and supply data to answer board members’ questions. The board also will hold a yet-to-be scheduled executive session to meet with lawyers to discuss whether the district should file a legal challenge to the state’s racial quota regulations. 

Public forums for parents discussion are scheduled for Sept. 12 and Sept. 26 and the board has an Oct. 10 ‘target date’ to decide how to proceed so the changes can be implemented for the 2014-15 school year.