For the second year in a row, Anna LoPresti School has not achieved adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Parents can now request their children be place in one of the town’s two other elementary schools, according to Assistant Superintendent Christine Syriac.
On Monday a letter went out to parents explaining the situation and how to request a transfer, Syriac told the Board of Education Monday night.
“LoPresti didn’t make adequate yearly progress for the second year and has now been identified as a school that needs improvement,” Syriac told the board. “We need to provide parents with a public school option.”
Under that option, parents can request their student attend either Bungay or Chatfield schools, she said. The district has to pay any extra transportation costs to accommodate that request.
But there are only a handful of slots open in those schools, so administrators will have to choose who gets them should the requests outnumber the openings, she said.
Parents have seven days to submit a transfer request. The new assignments will be made before school starts at the end of the month.
“Our goal is to have any students who are going to transfer in their new school at the beginning of the school year,” she said.
School officials also will have to come up with a two-year improvement plan that will be done after consulting with parents and teachers, Syriac said. The Board of Education must approve the plan, which is then submitted to the state education department. A progress report also must be submitted at the end of the year.
The requirement to offer the Public School Choice option stems from Connecticut Mastery Test results, Syriac said.
Achievement goals are based on the CMT’s given to children in grades three through eight in reading, math and writing. LoPresti received the “needs improvement” designation because less than 79 percent of students scored proficient or above in reading, she said.
But being labeled as a school that needs improvement doesn’t mean LoPresti is a bad school, board chairman Ed Strumello said.
“I don’t want us to paint a picture of LoPresti as a school in dire need,” he said. The reading achievement level was 74 percent, he said, so it was only a matter of a handful of students not reaching that goal that led to the designation.
“People have a tendency to overreact,” he said.
Between Bungay and Chatfield, there are only three or four slots open in each grade level, Syriac said.
“Are we trying to balance class loads to teacher contract obligations?” board member James Garofalo asked. According to the Seymour Education Association contracts, class sizes must be topped at different levels in each grade.
“We can’t say that there are no slots available at a particular grade level,” Syriac said. Priority will be given to students who are the lowest achievers and are from low income families, she said.