Flatto to Enter Redistricting Fray

First Selectman Ken Flatto is entering the fray over the Board of Education's 5-4 vote on a new middle school feeder plan that sends children in eight of 11 elementary schools to a different middle school.

Flatto's office on Monday afternoon sent out a press release to local newspapers saying he would address the board's vote last Tuesday and that he is "seeking a possible reconsideration of the vote on this plan." Flatto's press conference is at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

School board member Tim Kery, who was chairman of the subcommittee that recommended "Option E," declined comment Monday.

"He certainly has the right to voice whatever opinion he wants to voice, but I'm comfortable with the decision," said John Mitola, a school board and subcommittee member. "I think our decision is based on sound educational principles. We did our best to balance the middle schools and adhere to criteria so I'm very comfortable with what we did."

Perry Liu, a school board and subcommittee member who voted against Option E Tuesday night and who wanted the board to delay its vote until it received revised enrollment projections this fall, wasn't immediately available.

Option E appears to be most controversial among parents of children in Osborn Hill School, who would be sent to Fairfield Woods Middle School instead of Roger Ludlowe Middle School, and parents of children in Stratfield School, who would be sent to Tomlinson Middle School. Stratfield children now go to Roger Ludlowe Middle School, which is less than a half-mile from Tomlinson, but some parents believe Stratfield children should go to Fairfield Woods Middle School, which is much closer to their homes than either Tomlinson or Roger Ludlowe.

Other parents felt the school board was rushing its vote on a new middle school feeder plan, one of the sentiments expressed by Liu, who wanted the board to take a more holistic approach to redistricting. Supt. of Schools David Title, however, had wanted the board to adopt a new middle school feeder plan by the end of September so his office could begin planning for the 2011-12 school year.

School officials on Monday said Flatto's entrance into the redistricting fray could continue divisiveness in the community and that the majority of parents did not have a problem with Option E.

Board of Education Chairman Sue Brand put forward a different middle school feeder plan at the 11th-hour that would have sent children in Stratfield and McKinley schools to Fairfield Woods Middle School and kept Osborn Hill students at Ludlowe, but her option led to overcrowding in Fairfield Woods and Roger Ludlowe middle schools and made Burr Elementary School a "singleton," which means its students would wind up at a different high school than other children in its cluster that went to middle school.

But Brand's plan changed middle school assignments for only four elementary schools, instead of the eight elementary schools impacted by "Option E."

The Board of Education hasn't voted on "grandfathering" of students now in sixth- and seventh-grades, which would enable them to continue at their current middle school in 2011-12 when the new middle school feeder plan takes effect.