Transition Plan (Part 2)
Tracy had 75 slides. Holy cow! She was very careful to try to cover every situation and it showed.
Okay, what do we suppose is one the barriers to our NSAP and the transition? Yes, it's the VAX. Mr. Kennedy says they are making progress but it's still a problem and yes, they will be using it for assignments (hopefully) one last time. (Sherry really gave them an out by saying, "You'll let us - the Board - know if we bumps into any VAX issues in our questioning." I mean, you could blame the VAX for almost anything. Handy.)
Slide 6 reflects "We are unable to support additional scope (scope creep). Coding is currently underway and changes would result in project failure and our inability to support Open Enrollment."
Slide 8 started the discussion of the Transition Plan and I find it somewhat vague. This is for one year only and there will be subsequent transition steps in years to follow. How they follow depends on the enrollment patterns. They might move faster if people tend to follow their attendance area assignments.
Highlights
I hesitate to write on this as I was gone when this was discussed. It seems clear that on the one hand they want to do right:
"Accommodate non-attendance area K students in older siblings' schools to the greatest reasonable extent."
"Assure families that elementary school siblings will not be required to attend different schools."
There were slides about surge capacity strategies (including putting office space in RV's, no kidding). If these strategies don't work, there are 2 Transition Rules.
Rule #1. It seems they are putting some onus on parents. Slide 49 is about parents needing to make a request to be assigned to the younger sibling's attendance area school. A key word here is "just". It sounds like if you apply for the incoming K student "just" at the older sib's school during Open Enrollment but get assigned to the attendance area school, the older sib will be assigned to the attenance area school of the younger "upon request". "This would be done only if specifically requested by the family after Open Enrollment. The family could choose to exercise this option any time after Open Enrollment through September 30th."
Rule#2. If you apply for several schools during Open Choice and get assigned different ones, staff would (upon request) identify at least one school in the service area where families would be offered space for sibs. You could do this any time AFTER Open Enrollment through September 30th.
That certainly puts a lot of pressure on parents to (1) have this knowledge in mind and (2) remember to follow-thru. I think there should be a parent at every school who can explain this to their PTA/Community group. I wouldn't trust principals to take this all on.
I am not going to go through Transportation as I haven't read through it enough. Could someone who attended help me out here?
A lot to mull and muddle through.
Please read the Budget thread as well as it has implications for the NSAP and our entire district. I know, it's a lot. Read it at your leisure but please read it.
Okay, what do we suppose is one the barriers to our NSAP and the transition? Yes, it's the VAX. Mr. Kennedy says they are making progress but it's still a problem and yes, they will be using it for assignments (hopefully) one last time. (Sherry really gave them an out by saying, "You'll let us - the Board - know if we bumps into any VAX issues in our questioning." I mean, you could blame the VAX for almost anything. Handy.)
Slide 6 reflects "We are unable to support additional scope (scope creep). Coding is currently underway and changes would result in project failure and our inability to support Open Enrollment."
Slide 8 started the discussion of the Transition Plan and I find it somewhat vague. This is for one year only and there will be subsequent transition steps in years to follow. How they follow depends on the enrollment patterns. They might move faster if people tend to follow their attendance area assignments.
Highlights
- "All current students and all new students who register early will get an assignment letter at the end of February before Open Enrollment starts." This is pretty big as I didn't think you would get an assignment letter early as well. Open Enrollment has been extended to Jan. 15th.
- Assignment letters for Open Enrollment assignments will be mailed at the end of May 2010.
- Waitlists stay active until September 30th and you can apply to attend or change your assignment if available space at that school through then.
- Assignments for available space are first come, first serve through September 30th and tiebreakers do NOT apply
- Harium pointed out that the parent survey only asked for sibs for one year and that it seemed shortsighted. (He was listening to us, folks.) Tracy kind of waffled that the logic was that it wouldn't be useful data because people move around. (Really? that's the answer?) So Kay asked if in the future they would do it and Tracy said yes, they would add sib questions to the registration form to capture data and use it.
- Open Choice seats for High School are starting at 10% for only the 9th grade target enrollment size. DeBell asked if this was a staff recommendation and Tracy said yes, for the first year but not necessarily for full implementation. She said that they would not fill every empty seat, though.
- They are going to maintain the Barnhart/Waldman amendment for processing this time. That means (and this is important), that for this enrollment year, that if you put down a second choice and don't get your first choice, you will be assigned to that second choice as if you put it first. This amendment allowed parents to take a chance on a school that might be harder to get into without losing a more stable choice. The new plan will be to "process all first choices first, then second choices, etc.".
- The new plan will have a "keep siblings together" option to have them at the same school. This is only good for Open Enrollment (not after). Now, this doesn't mean you will necessarily get the school you want for both but that they will keep them together somewhere.
- The new plan will automatically put you on the waitlist for your first choice and no other. However, don't forget, for 2010-2011 enrollment, the Barnhart-Waldman amendment applies so you can pick a different waitlist from your first choice.
- I was confused over the "students who move" slide #37. Could someone who attended help me out?
- New students to the district after September 30th are assigned to their attendance area school (or linked school) only. Now this is gift because newcomers to the district normally had to take a seat at whereever there space. Obviously this means that most schools will not be entirely full. Keep that in mind. However, it was clarified that it also means no newcomer to the district after September 30th can apply to an Option school even if there is space. (Tracy says it is a VAX problem and that after it is cleared, they can consider that kind of assignment for a newcomer.)
- Early entrance to kindergarten applicants will be processed at the same time as any other kindergarten applicant.
- Spectrum/APP seats. Students can test in fall/winter with results back in time for enrollment. That isn't new. However, newcomers to the district can come in and if they were attending a school with a similar program, the Advanced Learning department can grant them entrance to Spectrum or APP. Naturally, this is fraught with some issues (like can they show they did test into their school's program even if the program itself wasn't similar to Spectrum or APP?) but this is new.
- No geographic zones for Option schools for 2010-2011. Huge gift. See below.
- for elementary attendance area - after sibling, it is "lives in attendance area/grandfathering at another school" and then lottery. Same for middle and high school.
- NO GEOGRAPHIC ZONE FOR OPTION SCHOOLS. This is huge. The reason? They ran out of time and couldn't have them done in time for tours at Option Schools. That means it's a free for all and if you want a certain Option school, now's the time. That also means your other children will now be able to come to that school as well under the sibling tiebreaker (or very likely). They won't be saving on transportation costs here.
- there are different tiebreakers for Montessori, Spectrum and APP. Refer to the presentation.
I hesitate to write on this as I was gone when this was discussed. It seems clear that on the one hand they want to do right:
"Accommodate non-attendance area K students in older siblings' schools to the greatest reasonable extent."
"Assure families that elementary school siblings will not be required to attend different schools."
There were slides about surge capacity strategies (including putting office space in RV's, no kidding). If these strategies don't work, there are 2 Transition Rules.
Rule #1. It seems they are putting some onus on parents. Slide 49 is about parents needing to make a request to be assigned to the younger sibling's attendance area school. A key word here is "just". It sounds like if you apply for the incoming K student "just" at the older sib's school during Open Enrollment but get assigned to the attendance area school, the older sib will be assigned to the attenance area school of the younger "upon request". "This would be done only if specifically requested by the family after Open Enrollment. The family could choose to exercise this option any time after Open Enrollment through September 30th."
Rule#2. If you apply for several schools during Open Choice and get assigned different ones, staff would (upon request) identify at least one school in the service area where families would be offered space for sibs. You could do this any time AFTER Open Enrollment through September 30th.
That certainly puts a lot of pressure on parents to (1) have this knowledge in mind and (2) remember to follow-thru. I think there should be a parent at every school who can explain this to their PTA/Community group. I wouldn't trust principals to take this all on.
I am not going to go through Transportation as I haven't read through it enough. Could someone who attended help me out here?
A lot to mull and muddle through.
Please read the Budget thread as well as it has implications for the NSAP and our entire district. I know, it's a lot. Read it at your leisure but please read it.
Comments
"there are different tiebreakers for Montessori, Spectrum and APP. Refer to the presentation. "
Second, I am still astonished that it was a parent (Meg Diaz) who shed so much light on how out of wack district staffing is and they still are trying to skirt the issue. The solution is at the John Standford Center, not in our schools. Why no director told Mr. Don Kennedy to get down to Tacoma and find out how they are able to run a district, very similar to ours, with so little admin staff is beyond me. We have the blueprint for a balanced budget less than 50 miles from home.
A 10% cut in staff, that's nickels, when there are dollar bills that could be cut.
I am betting there are a whole lot of staff downtown looking real busy right now...but that's the problem isn't, they really aren't all that busy are they?
As always, thank you for attending, taking great notes, and keeping us all informed.
I need some time to process this all...
Where are the savings from all the school closures?
Here is a link:
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/board/09-10agendas/121609agenda/saptransitionpresentation.pdf
Does "new student" mean any student not currently enrolled in SPS? (including private school students?)
(this is during the transition plan -- new students are guaranteed their reference area, while those attending an SPS school already, "grandfathered students" are not)
And, another question. How in the world are we supposed to be saving money, if the alts still get all city draws with transportation? Huh?
"Keepin on": the all-city draw decreases the transportation savings, but doesn't eliminate them, and seems to have something to do with the earlier start times for TOPS/Salmon bay.
Slides 63-64 say that there will be a 9.4 M "returned to the classroom" over the next 5 years (less at first 'cause of transition costs) because of the new transportation plan.
The transition plan document doesn't seem to grandfather K siblings, in the sense of guaranteeing spots for them. They say that they'll try to put them in, but on slide #49,
"If the incoming K student applies just for the older sibling’s school during Open Enrollment and is assigned to the new attendance area school instead, the older sibling will be assigned to the attendance area school upon request . . ."
This implies, to me, that a K/older sibling pair will be guaranteed spots (if you ask) at their attendance area school, but not be "grandfathered" into the older sibs school.
They plan to manage capacity to squeeze in extra kids as needed to accommodate siblings, but the way they're talking, it seems like they'll do this at the attendance area school, not at the older sibs school.
Is this only for schools that have space. In other words for schools that do not have a waitlist?
Question: What if your child is enrolled in a school and you want to change schools the following year. For instance your child is in 9th grade at HS X, and wants to go to HS Z for 10th grade.
When do you apply? During open enrollment? Early enrollment?
Parent groups pushed for grandfathering at all entry levels - K, 6, 9. However, the amendment to the NSAP in June limited the grandfathering to only elementary, or K.
Keepin'on
In the draft from the Work Session there is no sibling grandfathering at all, at any grade level.
You actually have a better chance at sibling admittance in high school because of the reserved open seats than any other level.
I'm not an expert at alts, or now termed Options -- but I think the only two remaining schools with all city draws (old plan) are Salmon Bay and TOPS. The proposal for grandfathered transportation is only for currently enrolled students, and only for five years at their current school. So as the years roll on the "city-wide" portion will decline to zero.
Even if you apply in 2010-2011 and get in - you won't have grandfathered transportation per the old plan. You will only have transportation as defined under the NSAP.
In the transportation presentation they are running approx. 68 more busses for elementary (Tier 2) than they are on Tier 1 (MS and HS.) I guess TOPS and Salmon Bay combined have 23 busses in Tier 2 - so if they can move them to Tier 1 it evens out the bus demand so that one bus and one driver can manage both a Tier 1 and Tier 2 morning and afternoon vs. just one Tier 2 in the morning and afternoon.
When students move to the next level of school or outside of the five years the transportation costs will decrease.
Ann:
For the period from Open Enrollment to Sept. 30 - first will be the wait list. If the wait list clears and then there is still space available it will be on a first come, first serve basis.
So if the wait list clears and there are still five spots available, the first five people to apply prior to Sept. 30 get the spots.
If you want to switch schools you would apply during Open Enrollment. However, if the school you want clears their wait list after Open Enrollment and still has seats avail. before Sept. 30 you could switch then too. Best odds though are to apply during Open Enrollment and either get in - or get on the wait list.
One more question. Did I read correctly (on slide #20) that all new NON ENTRY GRADE students get assigned to their attendance area school?
If I read and interpreted that correctly this is new. I thought assignment was only guaranteed for K/6/9 students.
And, what does "new" mean? Is it only kids moving into the district? Or is it kids currently living in Seattle who are attending private schools or out of district schools?
And new means new to the district - you can be coming from private, moved from Bellevue or Boston.
So, it looks like no grandfathering of anyone, but that they will try to accomodate out of area siblings if possible, or they will assign both kids to the attendance area school.
I think they're hoping that the technical issues of sibling grandfathering will be resolved, by managing capacity, people moving themselves around, . . . . But, underlying their logic is the neighborhood school idea -- they're listening about grandfathreing, because they accept the argument that elementary school kids need to be together (because of community/childcare/transportation). But, they're not supporting the use of sibling grandfathering in order to gain access to a "better" school (i.e. more popular).
I thought of another scenario -- now, a child can be grandfathered into a school, so that when they move, they are still guaranteed that school. If their sibling joins them at the school, but then, the family moves, would one sibling be "grandfathered" but the other have to operate under the NSAP? I think so, reading the working document.
That is the "Transition" that apparently is omitted.
I thought that "Every school a quality school was the basis for this Student Assignment Plan. Seems that the cart is in front of the horse and given priorities in this district will remain so.
When it comes to deliverables, that one will not be delivered. The board is going to spend money and resources on Cleveland STEM to turn it into a different school.
I fail to see how current spending and planning is in any way aimed at making every school a quality school. Raising the number of coaches and RIFing more teachers is likely to reduce the quality of most schools.
Has transportation figured in busing from the AYP judged inadequate schools?
I say that despite the fact that no one from the District has said that. Despite all of the talk about "quality" schools, no one has yet defined "quality" in a school, let alone quantified it or benchmarked it. It's the same problem as the "quality" teacher talk. Without quantifying it, assessing it, or benchmarking it, anyone who talks about this is just talking smack.
My definition of a quality school is one in which all students are taught at the frontier of their knowledge and skills and every student gets - at a minimum - the core curriculum of knowlege and skills that students need at that grade level. That definition can be met if the curricular alignment is achieved - complete with the differentiation for high performing students and the interventions and acceleration for low-performing students.
The District needs to prioritize their work and the their budget on this.
The systems are mainly in place - MAP, IF it is used with other data, would serve to see where students are regarding various standards; alignment would provide the standards structure; RtL would hopefully address both behavioral standards AND ensure academic levels are addressed; differentiation would provide the tools for meeting student need.
The pieces that need strengthening are:
assessment - MAP needs correlatives, and what are they?
differentiation - the comonly understood differentiation usually address culture and style, not so much level. Tools for helping levels would be helpful.
Finally, as Charlie points out, as long as students are learning the expected standards, it shouldn't matter too much how those are reached. Alignment should focus on standards (curriculum: knowledge and skills) rather than strategies and pedagogy. But common strategies can help, too, where they serve to help students become familiar with commonly used strategies that help them, for instance some reading strategies etc might be "common" horizontally and vertically, and even used in Math or science.
If these are all in place, then ther would be a way to address some basic standards at different levels and assess where students are at in them.
So that elementary school siblings can be placed in the same school. The transition plan does "guarantee" that elementary sibs will be able to attend the same school: In slide #49 they seem to guarantee that the older sib will be accommodated in the K-sibs attendance area school, which is a sib guarantee (remember that non-sibs in older grades do not have a right to attend their attendance area school). It just isn't the one that allows the new sib to join the older sib in their current school. They also state that this option will be available if the K-sib applies for the older-sibs current school, and does not garner space.
What I meant by wishy washy is that they are keeping the back door open to put sibs into neither the older siblings nor the attendance area school, but into some other school that has open spaces for both. At least that's how I interpret the sentence under rule 2: "staff would (upon request) identify at least one school in the service area where families would be offered space for sibs". This in some ways sounds worse than what was originally written into the SAP before they took out and postponed the sibling grandfathering issue in June (at that time the language said that older kids were guaranteed to be able to move to younger sibs new attendance area school) and is probably little helpful to most families. But perhaps I am misunderstanding what is meant by rule #2 since it refers to Open Choice earlier on!?
So y'all just thought it was a guarantee. It wasn't. So now, they are guaranteeing your kids can go to elementary school together. They just aren't promising where.
Because they would just be fullfilling the parents " wishes" to not schelp to different neighborhoods for PTA meetings, et al.
Since all the schools " are aligned and equally excellent" ( cough-cough), shouldn't matter which one.
( I used to believe in Santa too)
I think this sounds wishy washy, too, except that I also thought that the other rule (slide #49) guaranteed an older sib their attendance area school (if the K-sib was attending it, and didn't get into the older sibs school).
But, this rule doesn't affect me. I think it would be good to get clarification, and I think that there's enough wishy washiness in the plan (i.e. a bunch of options seem "available upon request") that people who are trying to navigate the sib issue probably need to be actively managing/questioning their options.
I can't see how the district is going through with the new student assignment plan without a new computer system, too. Unbelievable that so much of the transition plan depends on the capabilities of the VAX.
These new schools, too, are kind of a last minute addition and now the whole plan depends on them opening.
The whole process is a shambles, and has been mismanaged from the start.
Will families use the absence of a geographic zone around option schools next year to their advantage? Absolutely! I think SPS knows this, too, but they are unable to do anything about it; it's just another casualty in the push towards a NSAP.
I do think that the Eastlake people should lobby to retain their 20% set aside for '09-'10--it seems like the bias this year is to retain things that were already in place (since they are stuck with the Vax). In any event, they all have a guaranteed seat at Montlake for next year, yes they will have to be offered busing, but so will many other kids throughout the city.
E-Beth, what I meant by "now" is this year is a great year to be enrolling because of the lack of geographic zones. Even if they are quite small when they are enacted, the lack of them means an even better chance to get into a option school. And once in, your child's sibs will get in as well.
I have seen the district put "NSAP" and mean new student assignment plan. It might be good to get some clarification so I'll ask at some point.
You can look at the maps for Stevens and Lowell and see that there are a lot of elementary kids in the central area who do not have an elementary school that they can walk to. Eastlake kids are hardly on their own little island with respect to this.
Montlake is a fine school but again, it's small and unlikely to be rebuilt. Something will have to give at some point.
The Eastlake neighborhood did get "flushed" in the old assignment plan because they were too far away to reliably get seats at Montlake. That's not true in the new plan. All the kids in the neighborhood get to go to school together at a good school, which is a reasonable distance away by bus or car. Lots of other families are in the same situation, except that not all of them have such a good attendance area school.
Some of my neighbors are feeling like they got flushed. But someone on the other side of SR513 had to be assigned to Sand Point.
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/newassign/maps/08-09/attend/TOPS_ES.pdf
And Melissa, you are describing the plight of a lot of kids in Central thanks to school closures. The kids in the neighborhood around T.T. Minor can't walk to school, nor can the kids in Madison Valley.
"They are going to maintain the Barnhart/Waldman amendment for processing this time. That means (and this is important), that for this enrollment year, that if you put down a second choice and don't get your first choice, you will be assigned to that second choice as if you put it first."