On a bright and cloudless morning in May, small groups of educational and political leaders took turns donning hard hats and placing ceremonial gold shovels into a patch of soil on the southeast corner of campus. Fifteen months from now, the site where those shovels glistened in the spring sunshine will have been transformed into a brand-new building, filled with energetic children, with college students preparing for their life’s work, and with educators exhilarated by the opportunity to use innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

The event was the groundbreaking for the University of Hartford Magnet School, a ceremony marked by gratitude for those who laid the groundwork for the project over the course of more than seven years and by tangible excitement over the school’s potential impact on the future of education in Greater Hartford.

"I hope that the sunshine today is only a precursor for the sunshine that is going to fill so many children’s lives at this school," said University President Walter Harrison. "This magnet school, and the teaching and learning that go on within it, will have a far-reaching effect on Greater Hartford and Connecticut."

The magnet school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2001 on a site between East Hall (home of the Ward College of Technology) and the Watkinson School. Its students will come from Hartford and five surrounding communities—Avon, Farmington, Simsbury, West Hartford, and Wethersfield. The magnet school will serve 360 children in kindergarten through fifth grade and 36 three- and four-year-olds in an early childhood education center. The school also will offer a wide array of parental and community support services through a wellness/health center and a parenting support center.

The May 4 groundbreaking ceremony marked the beginning of construction on the $21.5-million, 76,000-square-foot facility. The ceremony was attended by dozens of people from the University, the State of Connecticut, the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), the City of Hartford, and the five other municipalities that are partners in the magnet school. The school is being funded by the state and will be managed by CREC.

In addition to bringing together students from diverse neighborhoods and cultures, the magnet school will implement an innovative approach to teach children. The school’s curriculum will be based on the "theory of multiple intelligences" developed by renowned Harvard University psychologist Howard E. Gardner. The theory recognizes that students learn in many ways other than the traditional, linear-logic approach taken in most classrooms. This diversified view of intelligence will encourage students to learn in the ways that best suit them as individuals, allowing them to display their true talents. Gardner received an honorary degree at this year’s commencement ceremony on May 14 (see page 20).

"This school was created out of a vision of a unique learning community that would reflect the rich and diverse cultures and communities of the greater Hartford region, and that would enhance student learning through an innovative curriculum designed to provide mastery of basic skills while also enhancing the full range of students’ diverse abilities and talents," said David Caruso, dean of the University’s College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions (ENHP).

The magnet school will also provide a "learning laboratory" on the UofH campus for students preparing for careers in education, music education, allied health fields, nursing, school psychology, counseling, educational leadership, and many other professions, Caruso said.

Among those who took part in the groundbreaking ceremony were two ENHP sophomores who will be seniors when the magnet school opens, and who may have an opportunity to do student teaching or internships in the new school.

"This school will provide all kinds of children from a variety of communities with the chance to explore their many intelligences and talents. [It] will also help me and other future educators to recognize the multiple intelligences in students," said Nicole Dean, an early childhood education major.

The magnet school is just the latest project in the University’s ongoing efforts to serve as a valuable resource to its neighbors, President Harrison said.

"The University of Hartford Magnet School is a concrete representation of the University’s commitment to its communities," Harrison said. "I hope over the years the school will come to represent the best of regional cooperation, and will become a leader in the education of our young people and in regional planning."

Connecticut Education Commissioner Theodore S. Sergi described the magnet school as "a great symbol of cross-town cooperation, with the University at its center." But he warned representatives of the six participating school districts that the school’s success depends on their ability to work together and to ensure that students from each of their communities participate.

"I challenge you to demonstrate to the young people of the region that communities in Greater Hartford can work together," Sergi said. "No youngster in this state is educated on an island."

Marcia Yulo, executive director of CREC, said that magnet schools are places of both opportunity and promise: "the opportunity to create schools from scratch and try out new ideas to enhance student learning," and "the promise of high achievement for all students."

"It’s a place to dream, it’s a place to try out new ideas, and it’s a place to bring everything together for the benefit of students," Yulo said.