By Sam Siegel
Assistant News

The future of Macdonaugh Elementary School in Middletown’s North End is in jeopardy due to a Connecticut state law that limits the percentage of minority students allowed in the
state’s public schools.

"Wesleyan students should care; this is ridiculous. This is totally disrupting a part of town that we are involved with," said Tori Barber ’01, who is involved in bringing student groups to
the North End school.

The Connecticut racial imbalance law dictates that any school whose minority population is 25 percent above the city average of students of color per school will be redistricted. The present minority average in Middletown’s public schools is 38 percent. Macdonaugh’s minority attendance is 55 percent.

Macdonaugh parents were moved to act when Middletown Superintendent of Schools Carol Parmelee-Blancato recommended to the city’s board of education that the school be closed and the 229 Macdonaugh children be distributed among other area elementary schools.

"We have to concern ourselves with racial balance in the district," Parmelee-Blancato said. 

"It was a very emotionally tense time because a lot of the parents feel really devastated by this–parents that live in the North End," Barber said.

One of the arguments for bussing the students is that it promotes integration among races, similar to what was done with southern schools in the 1960s. Others feel that it will provide the former Macdonaugh students with more educational opportunities because the other schools have more money.

"[The other schools] are probably better," said Dan Wolfson ’03. "The kids’ll be better off there...they have more money."

However, many of those who support keeping North End students in Macdonaugh said that its location next to the University is beneficial for the young Macdonaugh students.

"The special relationship between Wesleyan and Macdonaugh is not enjoyed by any other school because of the racial makeup and because of its [Wesleyan] proximity to the school," said Jennifer Alexander ’88, whose two children attend Macdonaugh.

On Nov. 1 parents of Macdonaugh students attended a Middletown school board meeting open to the public in an attempt to express their concerns about the future of the school.

In response to the parents’ demands, the school board agreed to set up a task force comprised of teachers, parents, administrators and members of the board of education to investigate alternative solutions to closing the school down. Parmelee-Blancato will act as advisor the task force.

"It’s important to us that Macdonaugh parents have fair representation on this committee," Alexander said.

Raquel Adorno, who has worked at the University since 1991 and has three children at Macdonaugh, said that bussing the students out of the neighborhood would create serious daycare problems for parents who work full time. However, she said she is most worried by the message of inferiority that the process is sending to her children.

"It’s not good for the children. My kids are coming home saying there are too many Blacks and Puerto Ricans and that’s why they’re closing the school down," Adorno said. 

Alexander, Adorno and other Macdonaugh parents said they are upset that poor minority students, who are already overburdened, are further inconvenienced by bussing that would require them to travel across town to pick up their children or attend school functions. Seventy-five percent of the schools’ students are from low income families and most parents do
not own cars.

"Macdonaugh was being closed because it’s not politically expedient to bus white kids," Alexander said.

"I think [the superintendent’s office] didn’t think that the parents would come out and do anything because the parents are disadvantaged...I think they really underestimated the parents and the effect on the kids," Adorno said.

Macdonaugh principal Claudia Norman said she feels divided between the concerns of her community and upholding state law.

"I understand the big picture but I also have a love of the school," said Norman, who has been Macdonaugh’s principal for the past two years.

"I think you have to look at the position I hold every spring, knowing that I have to tell parents every year that their kids will be going to a different school," Norman added.

Parmelee-Blancato said that it has become necessary to move beyond temporary solutions like spot redistricting to a more long-term solution to the problem. Spot redistricting is when the lines of a school district are expanded or decreased by one or two streets to take care of an immediate problem.

Macdonaugh’s community has been spot redistricted four times in the last eight years.

"That’s not a remedy," Norman said in reference to spot redistricting. "It’s not the viable solution that it should be."

"[Bussing to other schools is] devastating to those families because they’ve built a relationship and they’re within walking distance to the school," Alexander said.

The committee will meet for the first time within the next two weeks and will have until Feb. 1 to make a recommendation to the school board. 

Parmelee-Blancato said that most often the transition from Macdonaugh to other schools has been smooth.

"[They’ve] gone well for the children and have been a positive issue," Parmelee-Blancato said.

"Based on what I know about Macdonaugh, I don’t think they should be bussed," said Jeff Lane ’01, who has been tutoring students at Macdonaugh for the last three years. "It’s a neighborhood school and there’s something nice about walking to and from school... [Macdonaugh is] getting better."

"Closing a school can be very emotional," Parmelee-Blancato said. "It’s a difficult thing to do, we’re very sensitive to that."

She said she has promised that the school board and superintendent’s office will work closely with parents and will listen to their concerns before making a decision.

Alexander said that she and other parents also see this as a real opportunity to improve Macdonaugh and make it one of the best elementary schools in the city.

"If it’s not practical to redistrict then you have to make Macdonaugh better... The solution is to make the school better rather than closing it," Alexander said.

One popular option is to make Macdonaugh into a magnet school that would draw students from all over the city.

"It could be a real opportunity to bring stability to the neighborhood...the list of things to do is almost too long to name," Alexander said.

"I hope that people keep an open mind during this process because it’s important to hear all issues," Norman said. "And as a community we have to be supportive, whatever the
outcome, because of the children."