Bringing schools back into the public domain

''Do I dare send my child to a public school?" asked Hall, the owner of an out-of-print online bookstore, one recent morning.

Over the last 10 years, the South End has experienced a mini-baby boom caused by an influx of professional and affluent couples. Now, a group of those parents has taken on the responsibility of promoting one of the neighborhood's public elementary schools and proving that sending a child to a Boston public school is not an educational death sentence.

The group Neighborhood Parents for the Hurley was formed last spring after some parents attended an open house at the Joseph J. Hurley School on Worcester Street. Seeing that the school was in need of some basic supplies as well as a lot of publicity, the parents founded the group in the hope that their affluence would benefit the school. A majority of the members don't even have children at Hurley.

''People are constantly hearing bad things about public schools. Budget cuts, overcrowded classes, unhappy teachers. I mean, take your pick," said Kelley Curry, 34, a former technical consultant who has a 3-year-old daughter in preschool in the Back Bay and a baby due in the spring.

According to Hall and others in the group, the Hurley school is unlike any other public elementary school in Boston because of its small size (285 students), a workshop approach to learning, and its bilingual immersion program in which, starting in kindergarten, children alternate weeks taking their lessons in English and Spanish.

Since its inception, the Hurley parents group has held open houses at the school for prospective parents and handed out literature about the school throughout the neighborhood and has set up liaisons between the school and the community.

The idea of sending one of his children to the school was a tough sell a few years ago for Hall, 56, even though he lives directly across the street from it. ''I'd lost faith in public schools, Boston public schools, after my own experiences [as a student] in the 1970s," said Hall, who has three sons, two of whom now attend the Hurley.

He had sent his oldest son to a private school but ended up liking the Hurley after his two younger sons visited the school in the mid-1990s. A member of the parents group, he now serves as a liaison between the school and the community. Some of the group's parents realize they have history working against them.

''The stigma surrounding Boston public schools has existed since the busing of the 1970s," said Carrie Alyea, 40, who works in a hat design studio and whose daughter also attends preschool in the Back Bay. ''I think we're trying to prove a larger point: Public schools work."

Nora Pou, principal of the Joseph J. Hurley School, said she welcomes the parents group, especially those members whose children aren't old enough to even attend the school yet, because the group's influence will last for years to come.

''The group hasn't changed anything about the daily routine in the school," Pou said. ''But it eventually will, and for the better."

Alyea said parents like her are hopeful they will be able to send their children to the Hurley school, since the opening of the new Orchard Gardens School in Roxbury this fall has opened up seats at the Hurley. She said the group has plans to set up an endowment for the school, and her husband, an architect, is drawing up plans for a new gymnasium.

''With families popping up all over the South End, it's our responsibility to promote public schools even though we can afford private ones" Alyea said.

The Hurley school will be holding an open house at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 5. For more information about Neighborhood Parents for the Hurley, visit their website www.discoverhurley.org.

Martin Matishak can be reached at mmatishak@globe.com.