Teary-eyed parents of children whose schools are slated to close confronted Mayor Thomas Menino’s schools chief last week, pleading with her to give them time to up sagging test scores.

Boston Public School officials are weighing plans to close six schools, including Dorchester’s Roger Clap Elementary, the East Zone Early Learning Center and Lee Academy Pilot School, which is due to merge with the elementary school they share a building with.

“Many of us, we could have fled,” said Glenna Malkemes, a parent at Lee Academy, adding that “jaws dropped” when they first saw the low test scores. “But we are committed to the philosophy of the school.”

The Talbot Avenue school, which has 266 students, was founded in 2004 with a research-based focus on early education and care. It serves Codman Square, Franklin Field, Ashmont and Lower Mills in Dorchester and Mattapan.

“This school is going to be a feather in your cap,” Carl Nagy-Koechlin, a parent of a first-grader and a child in K-1, told a panel of Boston Public School officials gathered at the Lee Academy on Thursday night. “This school is on the verge of blossoming.”

In a show of solidarity, many parents and school staff wore purple beads around their necks, left over from school spirit week in June. Purple is the school color.

“It seems to me Lee Academy will become a real success story if the school committee allows it to,” said City Councillor Charles Yancey, who attended the hearing.

But school officials point to underperforming scores in the fourth and fifth grade classes.
Superintendent Carol Johnson, speaking to the Reporter after hearing testimonials from parents and teachers, acknowledged that progress cannot occur “overnight,” but added that the school has advantages that the Lee Elementary School next door, which is doing better than the academy, does not.

“We think with a lot of autonomy and flexibility, we also need accountability,” she said. “We have to see progress every year.”

The pilot school was created when Lee Elementary was struggling. Parents, who said test scores should not be the sole indicator of a school’s performance, argued that bringing the two schools together again is not the answer.

“Don’t make decisions based on data,” one parent said. Added a teacher, choking back tears: “We need to give things time.”

The city’s mayorally appointed school committee will hear any potential revisions from Johnson on Oct. 26 at English High in Jamaica Plain, and the committee is expected to vote on the final proposal on Nov. 3.

Inside Clap Elementary’s small auditorium, parents and children lined the walls and sat on the room’s small stage.

The school services 166 students across seven grades, and parents said the size allows for a special kind of social interaction among the grades that you don’t find elsewhere.

Superintendent Johnson pointed to the school’s low MCAS scores. Ten percent of fourth graders at Clap are proficient in the English Language Arts portion of the MCAS, where the district average is 30 percent and that the proficiency rate of students at Clap in the math portion is half that of the district.
But with a student body comprised of 75 percent regular education students and 25 percent special education students, parents said they felt making decisions based on percentages was unfair.

“The school isn’t failing, you’re failing us,” said Maria Cisterna Gold, addressing Boston Public Schools officials presiding over the meeting.

A parent of a second grader and professor at UMass-Boston who hoped to have her three-year-old attending the school next year, Cisterna said that losing this school would be detrimental to the social flavor of the whole neighborhood.

“They want the best for their kids; we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re adamant about their school staying open,” Johnson told the Reporter before she left for the meeting at Lee Academy Pilot School.
”We have concerns about the academic progress, and we don’t want to mislead them, but we also want the best for their kids,” Johnson said. “We’re just surprised by a school so small not seeing greater progress. Good teaching matters despite size, and we need to know why scores aren’t going up faster. There are schools that are better options, but we’re going to keep listening to these families.”

For some parents, the passion went beyond an appreciation for a small school that has become a staple in the community.

David Naves, a single father of four sons, said that the love and compassion coming from the school’s staff is outstanding, even with the drama that he admits his two sons in second and fifth grade bring from home to school.

“When they get home and I ask how school was, they say great. Not good. Not crummy. Not ‘This boy pushed me.’ But great,” said Naves, holding back tears.

Teachers and parents alike expressed concerns that school had been overlooked for funding and endowments because of its size. “I have no doubt that if given the chance, they can raise the test scores and make a turn,” Gold said.

Back at the Lee Academy, after the meeting wrapped up, school committee member Alfreda Harris stayed to speak to parents.

Harris, who has served on the school committee since 1993, declined to comment to a reporter. “Right now, I’m listening,” she said and turned back to address a parent.