On Wednesday, March 28, 2018, Parents for Batchelder submitted a complaint to the CT Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education regarding Batchelder School. The complaint is in response to the Hartford Board of Education’s plans to close the Batchelder building to students currently in the school and send them to other more racially isolated schools, then to give the school building away to students and families at the numerically desegregated, also whiter and more affluent, Montessori Magnet school.

In this case, the Hartford Board of Education is failing to implement the educational interests of the State. Specifically, the two allegations in the complaint include: (1) HBOE’s failure to implement its written policy and administrative regulations on school closing and (2) steering parents to more racially isolated schools, thus denying parents of “educational opportunities for its students to interact with students and teachers from other racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.”

Parents of Batchelder took this action after failing to resolve their complaint with the Hartford Board of Education. Parents of Batchelder demand that the proposed closure of Batchelder, and all related actions including the stealing of the building from Batchelder families to give to Montessori Magnet, stop immediately.

Parents for Batchelder is a group of Hartford residents & parents of children currently attending Batchelder School.