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Board Vice Chair Shirley Chilian said the magnet school committee had not unanimously decided to use a lottery system to pick students for a future international studies magnet middle school program.
She assured parents that the system would be a straight lottery.
“It basically guarantees that there are no discriminatory practices, as well there shouldn’t be in this diverse city of ours,” Chilian said.
Several parents of elementary magnet school students spoke, requesting that the students who are currently attending AIS be allowed to continue in a middle school program, exempting them from the lottery.
One Danbury mother, Elizabeth Durkin, who has two children in AIS, suggested that there were around 50 children per class from Danbury currently in the program, and the remaining seats be left open to lottery.
“This is a public school system and we want to offer opportunities to all students in the community,” said Sandy Steichen, chair of the board.
Danbury plans to open a third middle school in the fall of 2014 in the Mill Ridge Education Center. It would be magnet middle school and draw students from across the city. That building will house the STEM Academy currently at Rogers Park Middle School as well as a second magnet program on international studies. Those middle school magnet programs would be filled only by Danbury students. The AIS elementary school draws students from other towns in the region.
Board member Eileen Alberts said that she was concerned, and had been concerned since the AIS program began about how the AIS students would integrate back into the regular schools, and was in favor of allowing students to continue in the middle school program if they chose to.
However, not every board member agreed. “No matter how you put it, a preference is a preference,” said board member Robert Taborsak.
No decision was made on the proposed policy. A vote on it may take place at the next Board of Education Meeting on May 22.
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