aoconnell@thestamfordtimes.com

STAMFORD — Stark School parents and educators were all smiles Monday night, after the board of education voted not to dismantle the school as part of the redistricting effort.

"I'm just thrilled to still be here," said Stark third grade teacher Janet Samperi, who has been at Stark for 36 years. "These parents here worked tirelessly to achieve their goals."

"To continue to hold this sword over our heads is unconscionable," said Toquam mom Dayna Patashnik. The Toquam parents have been trying to protect their school from closure since the third week of September.

Parents had hoped that after 14 months of redistricting, Monday's meeting would be the final word on which of Stamford's 12 elementary schools would close.

The board was set to vote on six resolutions at Monday's special meeting: two would have moved the Rogers IB program to the new intradistrict environmental magnet school, where parents and teachers could expand their K-5 IB program to a sought-after 6-8 middle years program. Three resolutions would have closed Toquam Magnet School, either dispersing the student body or moving it to the environmental school, where student may or may not be enrolled in the environmental school curriculum. The final resolution would have moved the Toquam Bank Street program, students and staff to Stark School while redistricting 100 students from Stark.

Although Stark was spared, the meeting ended at 8:30 p.m. with two elementary schools still on the block.

Mayor Dannel Malloy, who is a non-voting member of the school board, changed the game plan early on in the meeting. Malloy suggested that the board adopt a Rogers scenario, but establish a working group charged with making further recommendations on the integration of Rogers into the new magnet school.

"There are issues (with both Rogers scenarios) that we cannot possibly resolve tonight," said Malloy, who himself drafted two amendments for one of the Rogers resolutions, in order to establish a working group.

Board member Monica Hoherchak is herself a Rogers parent. Until her run for the school board last fall, Hoherchak lobbied with the rest of the Rogers community for a middle years program. On Monday, she proposed changing the environmental magnet school to a K-5 format, saying she could not support Rogers' move to a K-8 environmental magnet school. The move would limit the number of IB seats available to Stamford students, she said.

"I could support it if the environmental magnet school was K-5," she said. "I can't support moving it to an environmental magnet school that's K-8."

She added that the Rogers community has always considered the possibility of creating a IB middle years program at Rippowam Middle School.

Julia Wade, a Democrat who attained a position on the board early this spring, supported Hoherchak's point and Malloy's suggestion that a Rogers scenario be adopted and a work group established. She touted the use of the old Rogers building as a Pre-K facility; the city's School Readiness Program recently received a grant to increase the number of Pre-K seats in the city.

Those who disagreed were the board members who sat on the school board in 2004, when the environmental magnet school was proposed as a six-to-six, Pre-K to grade eight, intradistrict magnet school which catered to both the children of commuters and to families living downtown.

"As the person who was president of the board of education during that year...I meant what I was selling to the other boards," said Susan Nabel, who said she would not support any resolution that altered the original intent of the environmental school program.

Roseanne McManus and James Rubino protested that when Malloy suggested in April Rogers be moved into the new magnet school, they were told that changing the school format from K-8 to K-5 would be too difficult. They wanted to know why now other board members are in favor of such a change.

McManus also felt that the board was losing sight of the point of the redistricting effort.

"This is not about two schools, it's about Stamford," said McManus to a smattering of applause from Newfield parents and hisses from the Rogers crowd. "I've heard from parents in North Stamford who said 'I can't believe you're building a magnet school for the people in Shippan.'"

Rogers parents were hoping for a final decision on Monday, said Rogers PTA president Candy Yeager.

"I know Rogers parents would be supportive of a K-5 move to the environmental magnet school," said Yeager, who said that Rogers parents are not thrilled but understand the need to move forward with redistricting.

"They should not be playing petty politics with the Toquam school, students and parents," said Rogers dad Roger Marment.