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Title : On Bell Times/Waitlists
link : On Bell Times/Waitlists
On Bell Times/Waitlists
I'll be brief because I only watched the first hour of the Board meeting and did not wade thru the director comments.On Bell Times
Superintendent Nyland started out thanking the City for the help in paying for a possible two-tier bus schedule.
But he said that staff had heard from multiple high schools (he did not specify if he meant parents or staff or both) but he said that Pegi McEvoy and Flip Herndon would be meeting with high school principals about alternatives.
He said they basically need roughly the same number of schools in each tier to make it work.
He also said they had heard from Tier 3 folks who were glad for two tiers but it seems jarring to go from three to one.
He said the Board would review the options as the City Council proceeded with its own work on this issue. This item will be introduced at the next board meeting and voted on at the meeting after that.
On Waitlists
Dr. Nyland had Flip Herndon and JoLynn Berge (Budget) come up to the mic during his comments.
Herndon gave a less-than-clear explanation.
He said there is a waitlist process that they go thru each year after Open Enrollment.
He said the factors they looked at were:
- capacity of buildings
- given staff allocation currently in building, can they move in additional students?
- "equitable" impacts on schools (it would seem that whenever staff wants to change policy, they can say "equity" and believe that negates any other argument)
He noted that the impacts were greater on elementaries because they tend to work in full FTEs.
Berge merely said that sending and receiving schools felt budget impacts by the choices that parents made.
The Board was asked if they had any questions and, to my surprise, no one did.
Public Testimony on Waitlists
Multiple Stevens' parents testified (and some kids) including their PTA president, Jennie Peabody Rhoads.
I found their testimony compelling if only because it made sense in the context of the stated policy.
Stevens is underenrolled by 90 (!) students with a waitlist of 23. There was a waitlist as long last year. What makes the waitlists here particularly curious is because there are many sibs on it.
How can it be a school has room in the building and yet sibs can't even get in?
What I think may be happening in Stevens' case is that the district wants to shore up Lowell and Madrona at any cost.
It was also pointed out that the enrollment policy seems to evolve as need be for staff. It's inconsistent because it appears some schools that are underenrolled will move their waitlists. Why would some students get choice and not others at underenrolled schools?
A Stevens teacher, surrounded by other teachers, said that the PD at the beginning of the year was about relationships. She then asked why some relationships with children would be torn apart because of these decisions.
Again, where is the sense in saying one thing and doing another?
What was depressing were the OTHER stories from different schools.
One Hamilton HCC parent said his son had been very excited to go onto the IB program at Ingraham. Except, wait, it seems that for at least a couple of years, the number of HCC students who can go to Ingraham will be capped. Then, that cap will be lifted. And for some reason, other waitlists are being mixed and matched but they will not be doing that for Ingraham for the next two years.
Another parent - from Dearborn Park - said they had the same issue with sibs being separated. They will be losing two teaching positions and may have split grades. Is that optimal for a dual-language program? It's not.
Kellie LaRue, capacity guru, also testified, stating that the lack of transparency on this issue will erode trust. She made a key point that the district and the Superintendent and Board should never forget - the money they have comes from enrollment.
As well, she said that protecting teachers at some schools will probably not pay off in the end. The district has not reached its projected enrollment for the last couple of years. If you have a process that hurts families, some of those families may make other choices.
And if they leave, their money leaves with them. Then NO school in the district gets it.
If anyone watched the directors' comments on this topic, let us know.
But I think the message is loud and clear - be unfair and inconsistent and it may come back to hurt the district.
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