Toquam parents mobilize to keep school open
STAMFORD - Parents at Toquam Magnet Elementary School have launched a campaign to keep it from being closed as part of a redistricting effort.
The Board of Education is considering closing Toquam or other buildings as it seeks to redraw district boundaries to balance school populations and minimize expenses.
A board committee will review the proposals at a meeting Oct. 18 and at an Oct. 30 public hearing.
The Toquam parents' group drew more than 60 people to a meeting Thursday, and hundreds more have shown interest, members said.
They're planning petitions and demonstrations to sway school board members and city officials. The group has set up a Web site, SaveToquam.com, with instructions for getting involved. The group is considering hosting a candidates' forum for the November school board election, said Owen Nieberg, one of the parents.
Parents said the Toquam should be preserved because it is a high-achieving school that draws students from many racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.
"Our belief is that Toquam very much epitomizes what the Board of Education is trying to establish in the entire school district, and to disassemble that is wrong," said Steve Polo, a parent. "We're looking to make sure that a successful school, both racially, socioeconomically and language-wise, is not disassembled but in fact nurtured, replicated and perhaps used as a model to expand.
"Toquam was one of four Stamford public schools that performed well enough to avoid sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind Act this year. The others were Westover Magnet Elementary, Scofield Magnet Middle School and the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering, an interdistrict magnet school.School board members say they are far from deciding whether to close Toquam. The board's redistricting committee has been meeting since February to devise a plan for achieving racial and population balance in the district.
School closures are being considered in part because the board will have more classroom space in 2009 with the opening of an interdistrict magnet school in the Cove, mostly funded by the state and serving 660 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, about a quarter of them from Stamford.
With school enrollment projected to be flat for the next decade, board members considered closing schools to cut operating costs and give taxpayers a more manageable budget, said Susan Nabel, chairwoman of the redistricting committee.
The panel is trying to get more children walking to school and fewer riding the bus, she said. Toquam is being considered for closure because it has relatively small enrollment, and most of its students take the bus, she said.
"The discussion about not using any particular school building is entirely based on budgetary concerns," she said. "It's the board's job to take a districtwide view, and while that may look as though we are purposely singling out a specific school, our job is to manage the district, facility-wise and budget-wise."
The Toquam program could be replicated at another school through professional development, staff reconfigurations and other measures, she said.
Toquam parents group disputed that.
"Yes, you need to be fiscally responsible, but where does the academic question fit in?" asked Jeff Herz, a parent. "It's the community within Toquam that helped make the program successful."
Committee members decided last week to further analyze the possible cost savings in the scenario that includes closing Toquam. That proposal also calls for closing Turn of River Middle School, using the Toquam building as an adjunct to Dolan Middle School, and combining Westover and Hart Magnet elementary schools.
The scenario likely will be reworked into other options, Nabel said.
Mary Lou Rinaldi, chairwoman of the Board of Finance, released a statement Thursday questioning it.
"Why are the most drastic steps being tossed around as the first solution?" Rinaldi wrote. "Slow down, take a breath and let's take the time to think this issue through."
Nieberg said parents "appreciate the challenge in front of the Board of Education."
"They have many factors they need to figure out," but keeping Toquam should be part of the solution, he said.
The Toquam parents' group wrote a letter to local and state officials including Mayor Dannel Malloy, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
The letter also went to U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination along with Dodd.
"It's an election year, and education is important to both of them," Polo said.
Nabel said closing Toquam has only been discussed.
"Not only have we not made this decision, but we have not really gone to the next step of finalizing any possibilities," she said.
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