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Hey Kids! It's Tracy and She's Explaining the Assignment Plan
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Tracy Libros, head of Enrollment, has made a video about the new SAP. Haven't viewed it all myself (it's 50 minutes) but let our readers know what you think.
wow - worth a watch! She seems to say that the older sib is guaranteed to get into the attendance area school with the entry-grade sib. I thought I've heard this isn't possible due to capacity management.
Carolyn has it right, although I'm not sure "guarantee" is the word that I would use.
It works this way:
If, under the new plan, your attendance area school is School A, and you're alright with your incoming general education kindergartener enrolling at School A, then you're in luck! Your child will be assigned there.
If your incoming kindergartener has an older sibling at School B, say about to enter the third grade, the District will (generally) make a place for that child at School A, with the incoming kindergartener, so you can have both of your children at the same school.
It does not, however, work the other way around. Here's why:
Suppose there are 60 incoming kindergarteners at School A. Suppose two-thirds of them, 40, have older siblings. Those 40 children will be spread across five grades, and there might be 8 per grade, or 4 per class if the school has two classes per grade. That's not too great of a burden on the school. Since there is always some attrition from year to year and since some students will be leaving the school to go to school with a younger sibling, there is a good chance that the school can absorb the additional students.
It can't work the other way, however, because if there are 40 students in a school with younger siblings who are incoming kindergarteners, they would take two-thirds of the available seats in the kindergarten.
Yes, it is a one-to-one relationship between the number of students, but the older students can come to the younger student's school because the older students are spread across five grades while the younger students are concentrated in just one.
Even still, this won't always work. There will be certain grades at certain schools where there will not be room for everyone.
I can see how this will work for elementaries, but I'm less clear about whether this will work for middle schools and high schools. I don't think it will. A lot of Lake City kids are likely to get assignment to Eckstein, but there won't be room for their 7th and 8th grade siblings. In a similar way, Magnolia 9th graders may get into Ballard, but that doesn't mean that there's room for their 10th and 11th grade siblings.
And Dr. MGJ is holding an on-line Q&A on Monday, June 15th.
From the District News & Calendar page"
"On Monday, June 15 from 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson will participate in an on-line question-and-answer session, hosted the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, to answer questions from the community about the District and the important work we are doing. The Web site address for the on-line Q&A is seattlepi.com."
They don't specify any particular topic, so I assume all questions are fair game.
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
Via the SPS webpage: The public is invited to attend or stream this forum for candidates for appointment to the District 2 and 4 School Board Director seats. All finalists will have the opportunity to share why they are interested in serving on the Seattle School Board and answer questions selected by the Board and Student Members. More information about the appointment process, including a timeline and candidate webpages, can be found on the appointment process web page . SPSTV Streaming: The meeting will be live streamed on SPSTV and broadcast on television on Comcast 26 (standard-def) and 319 (hi-def), Wave 26 (standard-def) and 695 (hi-def), and Century Link 8008 (standard-def) and 8508 (hi-def). The agenda reflects the above wording - the meeting will be two-and-a-half hours. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 27th at the Performing Arts Center at Lincoln High School, 4400 Interlake Avenue North from 6-8:30 pm. The Board's schedule reflects announcing
Comments
It works this way:
If, under the new plan, your attendance area school is School A, and you're alright with your incoming general education kindergartener enrolling at School A, then you're in luck! Your child will be assigned there.
If your incoming kindergartener has an older sibling at School B, say about to enter the third grade, the District will (generally) make a place for that child at School A, with the incoming kindergartener, so you can have both of your children at the same school.
It does not, however, work the other way around. Here's why:
Suppose there are 60 incoming kindergarteners at School A. Suppose two-thirds of them, 40, have older siblings. Those 40 children will be spread across five grades, and there might be 8 per grade, or 4 per class if the school has two classes per grade. That's not too great of a burden on the school. Since there is always some attrition from year to year and since some students will be leaving the school to go to school with a younger sibling, there is a good chance that the school can absorb the additional students.
It can't work the other way, however, because if there are 40 students in a school with younger siblings who are incoming kindergarteners, they would take two-thirds of the available seats in the kindergarten.
Yes, it is a one-to-one relationship between the number of students, but the older students can come to the younger student's school because the older students are spread across five grades while the younger students are concentrated in just one.
Even still, this won't always work. There will be certain grades at certain schools where there will not be room for everyone.
I can see how this will work for elementaries, but I'm less clear about whether this will work for middle schools and high schools. I don't think it will. A lot of Lake City kids are likely to get assignment to Eckstein, but there won't be room for their 7th and 8th grade siblings. In a similar way, Magnolia 9th graders may get into Ballard, but that doesn't mean that there's room for their 10th and 11th grade siblings.
From the District News & Calendar page"
"On Monday, June 15 from 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson will participate in an on-line question-and-answer session, hosted the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, to answer questions from the community about the District and the important work we are doing. The Web site address for the on-line Q&A is seattlepi.com."
They don't specify any particular topic, so I assume all questions are fair game.