The Boston Courant: Parents Give Hurley School High Marks
The Boston Courant
October 6, 2003
By Alissa Inman
Courant News Writer
The first day of school can be a nerve-wracking time not only for students, but for parents who question what school their children should attend and the quality of education they will receive.
A growing group of South End parents are finding their answer in the Hurley School, the Worcester Street elementary school for kindergarten through the fifth grade. The only remaining problem, according to some, is to convince other local parents of the school's merits to help reverse its declining enrollment.
"If this school were on Beacon Hill they'd be beating down the doors to get in," said Richie Hall, whose two boys went to the school. "It's not because it's a bad school; it's because no one knows about us."
The Hurley School currently enrolls 294 students but has room for 400. Its enrollment has decreased steadily in recent years, though principal Nora Pou said that "it's too early to tell" whether this could affect the school's status.
The curriculum offers an approach to bilingual education that is unique in Boston schools: all students, no matter what their primary language, receive half of their instruction in English and half in Spanish. The aim is to make all the students bilingual. It also emphasizes technology, with two to four computers in each classroom and computer instruction for all students.
More important to many South End parents, the school is local, within walking distance for many and offering opportunities for community involvement. Waltham Street resident Anne Kirby Alvarez said the Hurley School's location was a large factor in her decision to send her daughter to kindergarten there next fall.
"The biggest concern in my mind is that my child goes to school within walking distance of my house," she said.
Alvarez, along with Hall and several others, helped found the Neighborhood Parents for the Hurley School, a group designed to unite local parents of elementary age children. Hall said that approximately 100 parents are now interested, representing approximately 50 to 60 students approaching elementary age. The organization plans a fall Harvest Day festival and an open house at the Hurley School, among other events.
Hall said he became involved following the positive experience that his sons, now 10 and 11, had there. "We were wrestling with where to send our kids to school and couldn't afford to send them to a private school," Hall said. "I was pretty skeptical about the [Hurley] School, and am very skeptical about the Boston public schools in general … but it was a great school. It wasn't perfect, of course, but the kids got a good, solid education, and more important, they loved going."