Many Changes in Tonight's Board Agenda

Looking at the School Board agenda for tonight's meeting, there are many changes. (One thing that hasn't changed is that there is no information what the Superintendent's update, CAO update or COO update will be about tonight.)

One big change is that Kay Smith-Blum has withdrawn her amendment. Her statement seems to reflect having listened to her constituents and finding their reasoning plausible.

First, I have withdrawn my amendment from tonight's agenda. I greatly appreciate your input and sincerely apologize for any anxiety caused. My amendment would NOT have reassigned any student, but I appreciate neighbors who would like to see their children continue to be assigned to the same school and greatly appreciate the upheaval the NSAP/TT Minor closure has had on the neighborhood. The numbers the board received LAST NIGHT from Tracy Libros show that Steven's enrollment will be up from the already 111% capacity, and do not include siblings of current Steven's parents who now live outside of the Steven's area. There will be even more families disappointed next Fall if we cannot accommodate their incoming K siblings.

As one consituent who wrote me in the last few days put it: "The attendance area that was assigned to Stevens last year contains too many families with children, relative to the size of the Stevens building. This year's crop of kindergarteners filled three classrooms (with large class sizes). The school does not have enough classrooms to host 3 classes per grade K-5, so this is not a sustainable attendance area over time."

Steve Sundquist has tweaked his amendment

Franklin has been chosen (apparently) as the International high school for the SE. So it's Beacon Hill and Elementary TBD to Mercer to Franklin.

There have been changes made to the Transition Plan, too numerous to detail here but I urge you to read through it. They involved APP at Lowell, APP pathways, grandfathered assignments, assignment to Garfield (they took out the tiebreaker priority for Garfield area students before lottery to any other school they apply for during Open Enrollment). (The transition plan is the document attached within the agenda item.)

There is also a Presentation Document for the NSAP.

There is a lot to read through and try to assess.

One word - bullshit. At the eleventh hour (and it is because I checked the agenda yesterday), staff makes MAJOR changes to the Transition Plan. It gives parents virtually NO time to read it and ponder it and talk to the Board (this AFTER the Saturday community meetings). How can the Board accept this?

This is wrong.