STAMFORD — The recent redistricting proposal to move Toquam Magnet School's Bank Street program into Stark School met fierce opposition Monday night from parents of students at both schools at a public hearing.

"This plan is opposed by both the Toquam and the Stark communities," said Beth Stone, the mother of a Toquam student. "The board should bow to the consensus of the communities."

"Do not throw Stark under the bus to save a system-wide failure," said Tracey McGuinness, after theatrically heaving a stack of petitions onto Cloonan's stage. According to McGuinness, more than 1,800 people signed the petition to keep Stark open.

Monday's three-and-a-half-hour hearing — the last public hearing held before the board makes a decision on which school to close next week — was attended by more than 400 residents. The crowd included a large number of parents from Stark, Toquam and Rogers Magnet, all asking that the school board leave Stark and Toquam untouched, instead of closing Rogers' building and moving the school's International Baccalaureate (IB) program into the K-8 building in 2009.

The Stark proposal, introduced two weeks ago by Superintendent Joshua Starr, was suggested as a way to preserve Toquam's magnet program while balancing Stark's population.

Starr told the assembly Monday that he's never said he planned to close Stark, but that the school's performance on the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) will mean that the city will need to restructure the school in a year or two anyway. He added that the school is out of balance and will have to be redistricted.

He said that the Stark plan will increase magnet seats and decrease buses in the district.

Parents complained, however, that the plan is late in the game, vague and has changed since it's introduction — they do not know whether Toquam students and staff will replace the population at Stark, whether Stark students will be grandfathered in to be taught by Stark teachers who will leave once those students graduate, or whether some Toquam students will not be able to come to Stark.

Thano Chaltas, a Rogers parent who has been lobbying for years for an extended IB program, says the criteria for redistricting has also changed in the 14 months the schools have been working on the initiative. He said that the original criteria involved bringing schools back into balance, but said that other criteria, like increasing the number of walkers, have changed.

"These are not causal factors," he said. "They're not the reason why (a community redistricts.)"

Some parents did not agree with the Stark, Toquam and Rogers parents, however.

They say that moving Rogers to the new magnet school will reduce magnet seats in the city — parents from other parts of the district will not have five magnets to choose from but four.

"No matter how many magnets Stamford gets out of this," said Newfield mom Colleen Rea, "my children will not be able to go."

Rea was part of a small group of parents who are worried about the effects redistricting will have on their children were a small group of parents who have already been redistricted. The 57 Newfield School families who were redistricted to Hart Magnet this spring say that they still do not know which school their kids will be going to school in the fall.

The school board will meet on Monday, May 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Government Center's patio cafe to select the school that will be closed.