January 28, 2015

VIA CERTIFIED MAIL and EMAIL:

Hartford Public Schools Board of Education
960 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06103
Attention:
Richard F. Wareing, Chairman,
Rwareing@natelelawfirm.com
Jose Colon Rivas, Vice-Chair, JColonRivas@hartford.edu
Beth A. Taylor, Ph.D., Vice-Chair,
betaylor@hartford.edu
Craig Stallings, Secretary, cgr_stallings@yahoo.com
Rev. Dr. Shelly D. Best, Board Member,
sbest@conferenceofchurches.org

Michael Brescia, Board Member,

mbrescia@hartfordschools.org
Robert Cotto, Jr., Board Member,
robertcottojr@gmail.com
Matthew K. Poland, Board Member,
POLAM001@hartford.gov
Honorable Mayor Pedro Segarra, Board Member,
SEGAP001@hartford.gov

Re: Petition of Montessori Magnet at Moylan

School stakeholders
Dear Members of the Board of Education:
We are stakeholders of Montessori Magnet at
Moylan School (MM), parents, grandparents, staff and
community members, who oppose the recently-

approved relocation plan for our school. We hereby

petition this Board to: (1) suspend its decision of
Tuesday, January 20, 2015 to allow purchase contract
negotiations for the site at 139 North Main Street in
West Hartford, Connecticut; and (2) reconvene and
direct the facilities search committee for the school to
secure at least one alternative permanent site option
that is located in Zone 3 of the City of Hartford, or
within a half mile thereof. The basis of our petition is
as follows.
1.
MM families were not given reasonable
notice of the relocation plan and therefore
have been denied meaningful opportunity to
be heard.
MM families were notified of the proposed move
to West Hartford for the first time in a letter that went
home with students on Friday afternoon, January 16,
2015, right before the long MLK weekend. (See
Exhibit A.) The Board of Education meeting to
approve the site was the following Tuesday, January
20th. School community leaders could not possibly
have gauged, let alone mobilized, opposition to such
shocking news in just one business day.
The letter the parents received was also
misleading in that it only invited them to come to the
Board of Education meeting to ask questions or
show support. As a result, several of the parents
who were able to make it all the way across town to
MLK School at the last minute were still confused as to

their role at the meeting and the finality of the

decision the Board would be making there. The school
community has been no less than blindsided by the
proposal and swift decision to approve it, and the
undersigned parents and other school stakeholders do
in fact oppose it.
2.
Moving the school out of its community,
let alone out of Hartford, puts the very
fabric of the school we have built in
jeopardy.
A critical mass of MM families have come forward
expressing disillusionment, opposition, and outrage
that our school would be relocated to the heart of
West Hartford. A number of families, Hartford and
suburban alike, have expressed that they will leave
the school if it is moved to the proposed location.
Our school has been rooted in the Behind the
Rocks and Southwest communities of Hartford for
seven years. The Montessori program started as a
neighborhood school, and has consistently enrolled a
strong base of neighborhood and Zone 3 families who
choose the school for its quality program and
proximity.
In the spring of 2013, these families supported
the Montessori programs application to become a
magnet school with the promise that this designation
would bring significant resources to benefit the school
community and the opportunity to share their great

program with diverse families. As a magnet school,

MM has been fortunate to attract and enroll alongside
its committed Hartford families a diverse range of
suburban families who have not only sought out its
Montessori pedagogy but also specifically desired to
partake in an urban school.
Indeed, MM stands out among Hartford magnets
as a shining example of school that has been able to
attract suburban and middle class families alongside
grassroots links to an urban minority community.
Moving our school out of Hartford squanders its
demonstrated success in serving the purpose of
magnet schools as vehicles for desegregation in this
city, and it undermines the very reasons both
neighborhood and suburban families have invested in
the school.
3.
The proposed location puts a significant
portion of our school community at risk of
disenfranchisement and severely limits the
schools future ability to serve Zone 3
families.
The proposed location over four miles away in the
heart of another towns affluent, predominantly-white
neighborhood could not be further removed from MMs
community base. Research around the country and in
Hartford has shown that school proximity is an
important factor for low income families in choosing a
school. Even if pre-K transportation is provided, which
has not been guaranteed nor made a condition to the

Boards approval, this move marginalizes the schools

current families who walk or rely on public
transportation to get their pre-K children to school and
to participate in the school community, and it creates
an enormous access barrier for future families without
means to drive to the school. Statistics show that
35% of families in Hartford do not have a car.
There are current families who have already
stated that they will not continue on with the school if
it is moved to the proposed West Hartford location,
and the site will undoubtedly impede the schools
ability to attract and enroll future families from
disadvantaged and underserved Hartford
communities, the intended beneficiaries of Sheff v.
ONeill. There is no concern more critical cautioning
against this drastic move.
4.
Moving a Hartford elementary school out
of the city is unprecedented and lays the
foundation for a slippery slope.
In making the decision to enroll in an HPS school,
neighborhood and suburban families alike never
contemplated that MM would be located anywhere
else but in Hartford. Moving an HPS elementary
school out of the city is unheard of, has never been
done before, and lacks all precedent for support in
that the very nature of a primary school demands onsite parent access and engagement in order to thrive.

None have waited longer for a permanent school

home than many of the undersigned Hartford families
who have been with the school since its inception.
Still, expediency does not justify disenfranchising
crucial stakeholders of this school, flying in the face of
extensive and long-standing research cautioning the
risks of removing a school from its community, and
setting a dangerous precedent for future similar
decisions not in the long-term best interests of
Hartford families.
In opposition,
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