Stop, Drop and Roll

11 February 2008 | AUSD | John Knox White

Tomorrow night (Tues. Feb 12), the School board will be presented with the “Item G-1: Superintendent’s Recommendation - Pathway to Equity and Excellence: Elementary”

The agenda is from the AUSD website is here. But don’t expect much in the way of helpful information. I find it continually disappointing that the school district can’t even produce a useful agenda. I know that we have an intelligent, diligent, hardworking staff and I have a lot of respect for Superintendent Dailey, but honestly, how is anyone suppose to know what’s happening when the district can’t even put information on their agenda that indicates what the agenda is covering? I mean “Superintendent’s Recommendation - Pathway to Equity and Excellence: Elementary?” What the heck is that? I know what the Pathway to Equity and Excellence is, but there’s nothing about this agenda title that says “we’re talking about changing the boundaries for school enrollment and the enrollment procedures.” Zip! (rectifying this would take an extra 5-10 minutes of work every two weeks. The school board should really ask the staff to fix this immediately. They can use the Alameda City Council or Planning Board agendas as an easy template.

Bus back to tomorrow’s meeting….we are left with the amazing Mike McMahon, who single-handedly puts up on his own website, the agenda, with background information, so that people will actually know what’s happening in the district.

So from Mike McMahon’s website, here’s what the agenda item is covering:

• Increase capacity at Ruby Bridges by two classrooms by relocating Woodstock Child Development Center (WCDC) services from Ruby Bridges to Woodstock Education Center
• Increase capacity of Edison by one classroom by reducing space available for day care services from two classrooms to one classroom; if/when additional capacity is needed, increase capacity at Edison by an additional classroom by eliminating space available for day care services from one classroom to none (i.e., relocating day care services)
• Increase capacity at Otis by one classroom by reducing space available for day care services from two classrooms to one classroom; if/when additional capacity is needed, increase capacity at Otis by an additional classroom by eliminating space available for day care services from one classroom to none (i.e., relocating day care services)
• Lessen under/over-enrollment mismatch by eliminating choice on the elementary school attendance boundary lines effective FY09/10. Grandfather students enrolled as of FY08/09 only, not siblings. The kindergarten class of 2008/09 will be the last class to use the choice option.

I hope the board will mull over the last bullet a little more. Specifically the: “Grandfather students enrolled as of FY08/09 only, not siblings” part. The Edison School Neighborhood Network (ESNN) made a strong case for neighborhood schools and why they are good. Households on a school attendance boundary, who have kids heading into Kindergarten this year are being offered the ability to send their children to either school on the boundary. They’ve already registered for schools, so no sense in changing the enrollment after the fact.

However, it seems shortsighted to then say that these families can’t send a sibling to the same school, thereby splitting up families at separate schools. I have a hard time believing that the small number of kids that this would affect is going to have a large impact on capacity impacted schools (perhaps the district has numbers?) I don’t see where the “stability” and “predictability” that removing this choice supposedly brings outweighs the hardship of families that have kids in two schools.

On the East End, the two main schools are both overcapacity, Otis even more than Edison. Since the predominant assumption is that families are dying to get into Edison, this decision will have a much larger impact on Otis’ capacity. I’m not sure that’s true in all the attendance zones, but down this end of the island, it absolutely is, and hopefully the board will discuss it and ask staff for the number of student currently enrolled in Edison (and other schools) who live on the boundary, so that they can have a clear picture of what the real impact of this decision will be.