Christina Moore and her son, Roman, at last week's Ansonia Board of Education meeting.
ANSONIA – An 11-year-old boy was reduced to tears last week after the city’s board of education supported a decision to cut him from a team he joined after completing three rounds of tryouts.
Roman Moore was cut because although he lives in Ansonia, he attends a magnet school in West Haven that doesn’t offer sports.
Magnet school students are often allowed to play sports for the teams where they live and pay taxes toward the school district. However, school district officials noted that the ultimate decision on whether a magnet school kid plays for a home school is up to the school principal.
Roman was cut by Ansonia Middle School Principal Peter Colaccino, who, in a previous Valley Indy story, pointed out that about 70 students tried out for 15 spots, so it didn’t seem fair to have a student who doesn’t attend the school play on the team.
But Roman and his family had been up front about his attendance at a magnet school. Roman’s family said it wasn’t fair to allow the child to try out, call him one of the best players for his age, and then suddenly pull the rug out from under him.
An online petition circulated by Roman’s parents showed more than 5,000 people opposed the Ansonia school district’s decision.
Members of the school board said last week that they could not undermine the principal’s decision, which was also supported by Ansonia Public Schools Superintendent Joseph DiBacco.
“We are here to support our administrators, we pay them good money to run these programs, and we don’t believe it’s part of this board’s function to be the traffic cop for afterschool programs,” Rich Bshara, the school board chairman, said. “It would be nice if we could accommodate everyone, but it opens up a precedent that could be forced upon the board in future endeavors. For example if parochial kids want to play baseball here. I can empathize with your situation, but I don’t believe there’s anything this board is going to do to change the ruling of our administration.”
The response brought Roman to tears, who left the meeting with his parents, Rodney and Christina Moore.
The situation received media coverage from across the state, including a probing column from veteran newspaper columnist Jeff Jacobs, who questioned whether Ansonia was applying its rules with an even hand for all sports. The CIAC lacks rules for middle school programs. In a Valley Indy Facebook thread on Roman’s blight, former magnet school students from the Valley said they played sports in their Valley hometowns. Others said they were not allowed to play.
Roman (contributed photo)
All is not lost for Roman.
His dad said the athletic director for New Haven public schools has extended an invitation for Roman to allow him to play for one of their teams.
As a rule, students who don’t live in New Haven aren’t eligible to play for New Haven teams, Rodney Moore said.
“We don’t know what our next steps will be yet, but we’re going to talk to Roman and see what he wants to do,” Rodney Moore said last week.
Moore’s parents decided to send him to a magnet school because of the challenging curriculum the school offers.
Magnet schools and similar schools can be attractive education options for families in under-performing school districts such as in Ansonia and Derby, two economically distressed cities that are considered“alliance districts:” under-performing schools, as defined by the state, that receive extra state money to be used for school improvement efforts.
After a five-year hiatus, due to budgetary constraints, the middle school basketball program was able to be restored this year.
Superintendent of Schools Joseph DiBacco did not address the issue during last week’s board meeting but had previously said a mistake was made in allowing Roman to try out.
