Schools
Groton School Board Wants Racial Balance Rule Waived
More than 90 pack school board meeting Monday over redistricting plan
The Groton Board of Education will seek a waiver of the state’s racial balance rules to avoid a redistricting plan that would shuffle students away from their neighborhood schools, the school board decided Monday.
The board gave Superintendent Paul Kadri that directive as more than 90 people jammed a meeting .
Parents said they would support the superintendent and the board in their battle with the state.
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"Fight like hell"
“I think we should fight the state like hell on it,” said Rebecca Beyus, a parent with a 5-year-old at Northeast Academy. “I don’t think it’s lawful.”
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The proposed redistricting plans are aimed at accomplishing two goals: consolidating Groton middle schools from three to two, and correcting a racial imbalance at Catherine Kolnaski Magnet school.
because Catherine Kolnaski had a minority population of 60.3 percent. A school is considered racially imbalanced if the minority population is greater than 25 percentage points above the district average.
Groton's district average for elementary grades was 35 percent at the time.
$25 Million at stake
Groton is one of only a handful of districts in the state who face non compliance with racial balance rules because of demographics, and how those populations are polarized in different areas. Students from some neighborhoods around Kolnaski are more than 80 percent minority. Kolnaski is also near Branford Manor Apartments, a subsidized housing development.
Groton has tried to rectify the situation by making Kolnaski a magnet school and encouraging non-minority students to enroll. But the school draws largely from the neighborhood.
Kadri said he asked the state about a waiver when he first arrived in Groton and was told no.
He added that the attorney general’s office enforces racial balance laws and Groton’s $25 million in education funding is at stake.
Two moves in two years
Both redistricting plans would uproot students or divide neighborhoods. The first option would take students out of Catherine Kolnaski and send them to Claude Chester for one year for kindergarten, then return them to Kolnaski for first grade.
The second option would move students out of the Catherine Kolnaski district and make them part of the Claude Chester district.
Both plans would take Midway Oval – a neighborhood within walking distance of Claude Chester - and assign those students to S.B. Butler, increasing that school’s population by 100.
S.B. Butler, in the Mystic section of Groton, enrolls primarily non-minority students and is on the verge of being out of compliance under the state rules.
"People don't want diversity"
School Board Member Beverly Washington said she wants a waiver.
“I find all of this very distributing,” she said. “I’m not for breaking up any neighborhoods, I’m not for shipping kindergarten kids all the way across town to another school.”
“Personally, if you wanted diversity, don’t move to Noank. Don’t move to Mystic...” she said. “People don’t want diversity, that’s why they moved there…”
“It’s really pathetic," Washington said of the state demands. "It really is pathetic.”
S.B Butler has three intensive special education programs, two of which would have to be moved to accommodate additional students. Butler enrolls about 320 students now. Its capacity is 450.
Parents without cars
Debbie West, who spoke to the board with four staff members from Catherine Kolnaski, said the redistricting plan would “marginalize” kindergarten students and create “an environment of powerlessness” for parents and caregivers.
West said many parents with children at the school have no transportation to reach a school further away.
“Moving our youngest children to two different schools in two years does not provide a sense of community and belonging,” she said.
Dana Parfitt, who lives in Poquonnock Bridge, said families in the area around Claude Chester depend on the school like a community center, for programs like the breakfast program and boys and girls’ clubs.
“What you would be doing to my community is totally ripping it apart,” she said.
Boundaries based on race
Beyus said she moved to her house on Charlton Lane because she wanted to be in a neighborhood with like-minded parents, regardless of their race.
She said she wanted her son to attend Northeast Academy and stay there. She said she was upset when she thought she'd have to tell her kindergartener he was moving.
“When I got that message, I felt sick. I felt sick for days,” she said.
She the Groton school board, and a legal representative, should be behind Kadri when he goes to the state.
“Our boundaries are being drawn (based) on race. What could be more discriminating than that?” she said.
It was unclear how far the board would go to challenge the state rule. At least one board member asked what would happen if Groton simply refused to comply.
Other options
The school board also instructed Kadri to look at two other redistricting options: One would create sister schools, where students attend one school from pre-kindergarten to second grade and the "sister" school from grades 3 to 5.
The other option would bus kindergarten students from Catherine Kolnaski to Butler, to avoid also disrupting students at Claude Chester.
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