Board of Ed to Vote Tuesday on Modifying Pre-Schools to Reduce McKinley's Racial Imbalance

Supt. of Schools David G. Title's proposal to reduce the racial imbalance at McKinley School by expanding pre-school slots at Burr Elementary for low-income families and moving McKinley's pre-school to the Early Childhood Center is scheduled for a vote Tuesday night by the Board of Education.

The school board - already set Tuesday night to review a Long Range Facilities Plan and a report on space deficiencies in elementary schools - is scheduled to meet at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Education Center, 501 Kings Highway East.

The state Department of Education in Hartford cited McKinley School for being in racial imbalance in 2006 because the percentage of minority students at the Thompson Street elementary school was more than 25 percentage points higher than the district-wide average at that grade level.

The Board of Education was able - through voluntary opt-in and opt-out programs at McKinley - to reduce the percentage-point difference from 28.74 in 2006 to 27.4 in 2007 and 25.45 in 2008, but the difference spiked to 28.7 percentage points in 2009, which led the state Department of Education to require that the local school board submit an amended plan.

Title, in a letter to George Coleman, acting commissioner of education at the state Department of Education, said preliminary data for 2010 shows the percentage point difference at 25.89, which is nearly in compliance. Title identifies McKinley's minority population at 43.47 percent, compared to 17.58 percent for comparable grades in other elementary schools.

"The 'Absolute Imbalance' at McKinley is lower than the 2009 figure of 28.70 percent, a reduction of approximately 3 percentage points and within 1 percentage point of compliance," Title's letter to Coleman says.

Nevertheless, Title identifies two steps that the Board of Education can take in the near-term to further reduce McKinley's racial imbalance.

The first step is expanding the pre-school program at Burr Elementary for low-income families from 20 children to 36 children in the hope that families in McKinley School's attendance zone will send their children to pre-school at Burr Elementary. "The pre-school program at Burr is part of our Plan because students (and their siblings) are allowed to stay at Burr once they finish pre-school," Title's letter says.

In the last school year, five of 20 children stayed at Burr, and Title estimates nine would stay at Burr if Burr's pre-school were expanded to 36 children.

The second part of the plan calls for McKinley's pre-school to merge with the Early Childhood Center at Fairfield Warde High School. Title says in the letter to Coleman that the percentage of minority children in McKinley's pre-school is higher than the percentage of minority students at McKinley and "has exacerbated the school's racial imbalance." This year, 60 percent of children in McKinley's pre-school are minorities, according to Title, well above the percentage of minority students in McKinley's kindergarten through fifth-grade classes.

School officials also are exploring offering a before-school and after-school program at another elementary school to encourage McKinley parents to transfer their children to another elementary school. Wakeman Boys & Girls Club, which provides such a program at McKinley, is interested in expanding to another school, according to Title's letter.

School officials also have undertaken a parent survey to see what types of programs would encourage McKinley parents to send their children to another school and what programs McKinley could offer to encourage parents of children in other elementary schools to send their kids to McKinley. The results of that survey are expected this month, according to Title's letter.

Title said at a budget meeting last month that he didn't think the school district would need to add staff to increase slots at Burr Elementary and that the program, now open to 4-year-olds, would be expanded to include 3-year-olds. He said there was room at the ECC for non-special education children as well. "The ECC space we have now is nicely designed and under-utilized," Title said at the Jan. 18 meeting.