Overcrowding to Move 30 Students From Macdonough to Farm Hill, Snow Schools

The Middletown board of education Tuesday voted to allow Superintendent Patricia Charles to use spot redistricting to ease overcrowding at Macdonough Elementary School, according to the Middletown Press.

Students who live on a 10 city streets south of Washington Street will be redistricted to Snow and Farm Hill schools.

The issue has arisen at the city's North End school because of lack of classroom space. "We need to do 12 classrooms at Macdonough next year, not 14, as it is now. There is inadequate space for art, music and support staff," Charles says.

"What we're looking at will not affect too many kids," Charles said. "Thirty kids total. As the kids enroll, some more will be transitioning out so hopefully we'll be able to manage that."

Macdonough Principal Jon Romeo said the students tentatively affected are kindergartners and first-graders, plus three third-graders and one fourth-grader. The older students are siblings of younger students who would be moved to Snow or Farm Hill, according to the Middletown Press.

Charles noted that his change one affect another issue in city schools. "That still doesn't address the racial imbalance at the school." 

In December, the board's feasibility committee addressed the issue, saying at that time the number of students coming to Macdonough from an area of Middletown closer to Snow and Farm Hill were 40 to 45, according to the meeting minutes. Once the number of incoming students reached 50, Macdonough Principal Jon Romeo said at the time, redistricting would have to be addressed.

Last January, parents and citizens spoke in favor of reinvigorating a committee to oversee redistricting, specifically at Farm Hill School to address racial disparity and overcrowding.

Cathy Lechowicz, a member of the Ad Hoc Feasibility Committee charged in March 2010 to deal with Middletown's redistricting issues, spoke, as did Izzi Greenberg, also a member. At the time, Lechowitz, also a parent of twin sons, said part of the redistricting process was to offer teachers "training to deal with shifting populations at schools," which, she said has not been done since the September 2011 redistricting.

The Ad Hoc Feasibility Committee's work, said Greenberg, executive director of the North End Action Team and a Macdonough Elementary School mother, "was only the first step in redistricting. The committee knew the real work of redistricting is in the monitoring and the ongoing assessment of the numbers."

"This is important work that hasn’t been done," Greenberg said last January. "There should be a regular committee of the Board that looks at facility, attendance and enrollment boundaries. These issues are fully connected."

In April 2010, the board approved a redistricting plan that created neighborhood schools, corrected a racial imbalance at Commodore Macdonough Elementary School and stemmed overcrowding at Van Buren Moody Elementary School, according to the Hartford Courant. Then, 440 students were assigned to different schools for the fall 2010.