New Haven Independent

Hooker, a top-notch public, neighborhood school serving grades K to 8, gives admissions preference to students who live inside a delineated area of East Rock. Just where those golden boundaries lie has remained a mystery to many.

At a recent neighborhood meeting, parents pressed school officials to release a list of “in-district” addresses for Hooker and post them publicly, so they can know where their children stand. School officials released the street directory to the Independent this week. Click here to view the master list. (It includes in-district addresses for Hooker as well as other neighborhood schools.)

The information will be prominently displayed on the school system’s new website, to debut shortly, school officials said.

The street directory may not end the continuing confusion over how to get into Hooker School.

It also doesn’t solve Hong Zheng’s predicament.

Zheng lives at the Buckingham Apartments (pictured) at the corner of Canner and Livingston Streets in East Rock. Half the apartment building has a mailing address of 70 Livingston St. The other half is labeled 107 Cottage St.

According to the street directory, only one half is included in the Hooker School district map. The other half, where Zheng lives, is outside the boundaries.

The news came as a surprise to Zheng when she tried to enroll her daughter in kindergarten this spring. Zheng, who works at Yale, has lived at 107 Cottage St. for seven years.

The apartment building is just four blocks away from the school. Her neighbors at the the same address at the Buckingham Apartments got their kids into Hooker without problem last year. She thought she wouldn’t have a problem, either.

“I guess I took it for granted,” she said this week. But when she spoke with school officials on registration day, she was told that there was no room for her daughter in the kindergarten class. She was told the boundaries have changed and her address is no longer in-district, according to Zheng.

Some confusion appears to be created by a discrepancy between a map and a directory. Zheng’s address appears on a map of the Hooker district that school officials released last year to the Independent, but it doesn’t appear on the list of in-district addresses released Monday.

Reached by email this week, William Clark, the school system’s chief operating officer, said there have been no recent changes to the Hooker district.

The map, he said, is “unofficial” and is not used by the registrar’s office.

Clark said the list released this week is the “official directory” the school system uses to place students in schools. Parents should refer to the list of addresses in the street directory, not the ones penciled into the bottom corner of that map, he said. (Click here to view the map, taking into account that caveat.)

What About Yale?

The street directory includes two aberrations: 505 College St., home to Yale’s Silliman College, and a street named Prospect Court.

Silliman College is one of Yale’s 12 residential colleges, where undergraduate students live. Clark didn’t have an explanation as to why the College Street address — a discrete point far from the East Rock neighborhood — is included in the Hooker district.

Mike Morand, vice president of Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs, said no school-aged children live at that address. He said 505 College St. is home to Silliman College and its dean, whose children are grown. His office has no knowledge of why the address is included in the Hooker district, he said.

Prospect Court is the name of a short residential road off Prospect Street across the Hamden border. Asked if the inclusion was in error, Clark surmised it might be an old name used for an apartment complex.

Other differences between the map and the directory don’t appear to affect any residential properties, except for Zheng’s home.

Perseverence

Determined to get some answers on the admission process, Zheng was given some advice at a meeting with school officials on June 15. She asked Debbie Breland, who runs the registration office, if she could increase her chances of admission by planning a sneak attack. The sneak attack would include walking down to the registration office hand in hand with a parent who intends to withdraw his or her child, then signing up for the open spot.

Breland told Zheng that admissions are first come, first served — but she may get the spot if she tries that method.

After the meeting, Zheng did just that.

She walked down to the registration office with a friend whose child got into kindergarten, but no longer plans to attend. The sneak attack was foiled.

School officials rejected the move on two counts, according to Zheng: First, they said parents couldn’t automatically make the switch, in case there is another parent “ahead of” Zheng in line to get into Hooker. (There’s no waiting list, however, so no parent knows if there’s anyone ahead in line.)

Second, they told her the woman couldn’t withdraw her child from Kindergarten registration, because school was still in session. They were told to come back to later.

Zheng and her friend tried a second time. Again, they were told to come back after the school year ended.

Zheng said staff have been helpful, and she’s feeling optimistic about the process now that she knows the rules. She learned that bilingual students like her daughter are given some preference in admissions. She resolved to come back to the Board of Education and try a third time.

“No matter what, I will try my best to let my daughter go to that school,” she said.

In the meantime, Zheng said she’s learned a lesson she intends to share with newcomers to the area: “If they choose Hooker, they have to be careful of
the boundary.”

“Don’t look for an apartment around the boundaries, because they could change.”