City schools plan changes to open enrollment system
School Board Representative Carol Wolf has written a letter to Richmond residents about proposed changes to the current open enrollment policies in Richmond Public Schools:
Dear Neighbors and Friends,The Richmond Public School Board is considering changes to the current open enrollment policies. I would appreciate it if you would review this proposed draft document and share your suggestions and concerns.
This draft procedure is being sent to principals for their feedback and I ask that parents and teachers weigh in as well. This is an effort on the part of the Legal, Legislative, Policy and Communications Committee to clarify and adjust open enrollment since out-of-zone transportation was virtually eliminated in the 2007/2008 budget.
Any new open enrollment procedure would not take effect until the 2009/2010 school year, but because the application process would begin this year, the school board hopes to adopt a procedure this fall.
Please let me know your thoughts, either on this blog or by e-mailing me directly at Wolfies@aol.com. Please send your comments by Friday, August 15 so that we may include them in the August committee meeting.
You are, of course, welcome to attend the August LLPC meeting to assist with revising this draft. It will be held in the 17th floor committee room on 8/21 at 11:30 a.m.
DRAFT-DRAFT-DRAFT PROPOSAL-DRAFT
Proposed Procedure for Open Enrollment
2009-2010 School Year
DRAFTâFOR PARENT & TEACHER COMMENT“RPS has a goal of making all schools exemplary. Each school has a focus on the success of all students, supported by a comprehensive system of needs analysis based on the schoolâs vision, goals, and data that drive priorities, objectives, and programs offered. “While children are encouraged to attend neighborhood schools, school choice remains an option. Students may apply to attend other schools with acceptance prioritized according to the following: “Priority 1 – Request for transfer from a low-performing school to a higher performing school Under NCLB, children attending a low-performing school may submit a request for placement in a higher performing school. “Priority 2 – Request for special permission to attend an Out of Zone school “Elementary: Parents may apply to any school with acceptance based on space availability through a lottery. Transportation is not provided. Any approved form is contingent on the parents providing transportation to and from school, the studentâs regular and prompt attendance, and observation of school rules and regulations. “Special permission may be revoked if these contingencies are not adhered to. Special permission is granted for one year at a time. “In cases of unexpectedly larger school and/or class enrollment, principals may withdraw out-of-zone permission prior to the opening of school. Parents will receive written notice five days prior to withdrawal. “Secondary – Parents may apply to any school with acceptance based on space availability through a lottery. Transportation is not provided. Any approved form is contingent on the parents providing transportation to and from school, the studentâs regular and prompt attendance, and observation of school rules and regulations. “Special permission may be revoked if these contingencies are not adhered to. Special permission is granted for one year at a time. “Request to attend a specialty secondary school/program. Rising 6th graders may apply to the Middle School IB program. Acceptance at this program is based on the studentsâ academic, behavioral, and extracurricu8lar performance. Rising 9th graders may apply to any or all of the High School Specialty Programs. Acceptance at these programs is based on the studentâs academic, behavioral, and extracurricular performance. “While preference is given to rising 9th graders, consideration may be given to rising 10th graders who excel academically and have accrued sufficient credits to qualify as 10th graders in the specialty program.”
Teacher,
These are the questions that my constituents submitted to me. I know plenty about Title I, NCLB, AYP, VAAP, VGLA, education law (both state and federal) and can, with great confidence answer each of these questions myself.
But in the spirit of being a “team player,” I thought it best to allow our expert administrators, lawyers and my colleagues the opportunity to finish their homework before weighing in on these matters.
I wouldn’t want anyone to be able to accuse me of being a “know-it-all” or of attempting to practice law without passing the bar exam and earning a license.
P.s.
My questions are in the narrative that precedes the list of questions submitted by my constituents.
It’s a waste of time to ask other people to answer questions for which you already know the answer.
Teacher,
Isn’t that what teachers do all day?
As a policy-maker and a leader, I have learned that a little patience can go a long way to building success.
I am confident that the administration and lawyers will provide the promised answers within the week.
Checking for comprehension is a bit different than what you are suggesting.
Good teachers explore concepts with their students and are open to new interpretation.
I hope that as one who recognizes the inequality of our schools, you’ll make an effort to rid us of policies which continue to promote de facto segregation such as there are now. You should attend the school for which you are zoned. If you don’t like the school then do something about it. It’s pretty obvious that Open and Community serve as the public version of a private school.
I find it humorous that some people are touting the percentage of high schools making AYP. If you remove Open and Community, what do you have 3/5?
I found this thread interesting except for all the back biting. PLEASE restrain yourselves. Perhaps exchange email addresses and bicker on your own time.
http://chpn.net/news/2008/08/13/in-response-to-a-poisonous-environment/
Peacemaker:
Read this blog for a serious discussion of the need for people to respectfully disagree. Things have mightily matured on this thread as well. Sometimes people have to bicker a bit to work through things, but what matter most is that in the end folks can disagree without being disagreeable. The following two posts are noteworthy.
# 56. posted by ReachemTeachem at August 18, 2008 12:43 am :
I think the bigger thing that John Murden is asking of us is not so much for us βnot to bicker,β but for us to find a way to have discussions and disagreements that are respectful of one another as human beings.
I really appeciate the tone of what GRR has posted. Imagine what could happen if we all tried to find ways to have our differences but to be able to create something positive from those differences that could make a substantive improvement in our community?
# 57. posted by john_m at August 18, 2008 7:26 am :
I think the bigger thing that John Murden is asking of us is not so much for us βnot to bicker,β but for us to find a way to have discussions and disagreements that are respectful of one another as human beings.
That is well put
*matters
I am not going to apologize for not being politically correct, polite, or congenial when students continue to become inmates, are passed on socially, and are generally treated without the respect that the knowledge of their being our future deserves. The incompetence that continues to drive our school system deserves no other term. The segregation that is perpetuated is unacceptable. The cronyism that remains must be routed.
It’s time for a revolution in thought and action. The word mediocre isn’t even applicable to RPS.
Of course there will be many who will say, I’m focusing on the negative and should be a team player and that I am a role model for many, so I should reconsider my caustic tone. I will not kowtow to the party line when it is continuing to destroy lives.
We should be demanding better management, facilities, quality of improvement, and yet all around are people saying oh… be nice. Being nice has gotten our school system where it is. A place with two schools serving 400 students ranked as the nation’s best and yet the rest of the school system is the worst in the region, so much so that parent’s are saying they’ll put up a for sale sign if they aren’t given school choice. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. There is a lot to be angry about.
No one asked for your apology. But, what have you done to improve the system other than complain?
Believe me, Teacher, I understand how you feel. But, comes a time when we need to move beyond the anger and dedicate ourselves to making the necessary change happen.
Dear GRR…
If only you knew. I’d like to tell you, but my job is sensitive. The fact that I haven’t left RPS given the experiences I have had is enough in itself, but I go beyond the call of duty on a regular basis. I do what custodians, security, other teachers, and administrators refuse to on a regular basis. I don’t need to prove myself. To give you an idea, there are few people who still work at the school since the day I was hired and I haven’t been there longer than 5 years. Turnover is a good indicator of the climate of the school.
There needs to be an agency outside and very separate from RPS for parents and teachers to go for filing complaints. RPS cannot be trusted to do what is right. I believe there are RPS folk in power that would rather crap on your child and mistreat teachers than fire their cruel buddies.
I think it’s a bit more subtle than that. However, there are a lot of egos in the way of a more successful system.
Shouldn’t we do away with school choice outside of NCLB? You live there, you go to school there, after all, what would your neighbor think if you told them your child is too good to go to the school his child is attending?
Teacher,
I would not send my kids to a crappy school for my neighbors sake. Most families, hopefully, will put their children first over the feelings of the neighbors.
Most families will hopefully come together to improve their mutual situation.
I know over at Cary, the in-zone and out-of-zone parents attempted to improve the situation but downtown did not lend their support and kept the bullying mean principal in place. For some, keeping their children in this school would be damaging to the children’s welfare and being. Not all schools are safe enviroments for our children.
If we see a RPS employee verbally abuse students, shun teachers, “force” employees “to leave on their own accord,” cause discord between parents, students, and teachers, break laws, etc and downtown chooses to keep this type of “worker,” then citizens cannot trust using just any neighborhood school.
Downtown needs to prove that children come first.
The way it stands now, RPS would rather lose families that expose corruption in the RPS to the county and private schools than to actually take measures to improve things and get rid of rotten leaders/employees.
Yes, I’ve seen some of what you are saying and this is why when it comes to government, we have to remind them who they represent. This is also why i think it is important to have highly qualified individuals running the system rather than only elected officials. There is a way to balance the two ideals.
What is also key is that we treat schools that you describe (and crime and poverty for that matter) as something we do not fear. Just like arresting prostitutes and drug dealers does not solve the problem, transferring your children from a “bad” school does not repair the issue. If you think a school is inherently dangerous, then why would you abandon the staff in the school as well as the students who can not leave? I work in a school that is viewed as dangerous, but I don’t lose sleep at night thinking I am going to be killed.
The bottom line is the buck stops with us and open enrollment passes the buck to those who are unable or unwilling to do the same. President Truman is probably turning over in his grave.
Teacher,
We live in a culture that fears crime, poverty, drugs and violence.
And no matter how highly qualified the individuals are who are running the system, no matter how highly qualified the elected officials are, facts are we will continue to battle the death-dealing inequalities of class struggle in this nation.
We are blessed to have some sincere (and some self-righteous) do-gooders who offer to help our schools out of pity or because they want tax deductions, or both.
These do-gooders, church people and just plain folk, some stalwart business leaders, seem to love to help out in our elementary schools, but once our kids hit middle and high school, these good citizens are suddenly too busy, too scared or just too tired.
We have teachers in our schools, such as you, who know the score, but who remain silent. I do not know of one single teacher in this system who HAS NOT taken money out of his or her own pocket to help a child or family.
We have teachers, such as you, who are so accustomed to feeling angry and powerless that you allow yourself to attack the parents of children with disabilities and the lone School Board member who have dared to demand change and have somehow managed to make some change happen, meager and miniscule that it is.
We have teachers who dare to speak out and who are then driven out. We have families who suffer the horrors that Gray describes who are then “moved” to another school in the hope of silencing them.
Until the “silent majority” of the not-really satisfied and the lucky ones with the money to move their kids elsewhere, decide they have had enough, that they are not going to sell their homes or pay private tuition, this is what it will continue to be.
teacher, you said, “If you think a school is inherently dangerous, then why would you abandon the staff in the school as well as the students who can not leave?”
Are you out of your mind? We’re now expected to keep our children in a dangerous enviroment, like the one I described above where a principal mentally abuses children, for the sake of staff and other children? You’re nuts. No, downtown needs to fire employees like that. If you think for one second that a child should be left with cruel abusive adults then you shouldn’t be teaching anymore.
Look my kids attend/have attended their neighborhood school but if I continue to hear anymore bull like you have been dishing out, I’ll fight for vouchers (If you look around on various threads you’ll find that I’ve been fighting against vouchers).
No child should be left ever with an abusive adult.
I am misunderstood.
I’m not advocating for allowing children to be abused in any capacity. I am suggesting that the more we run from problems, the more we contribute to the growth of that problem. If you don’t believe we have run, then perhaps you haven’t heard of white flight. I do believe that by banding together and communicating we can stop the oppression that we have adequately identified. Vouchers are one more way of avoiding the problem at hand.
I don’t feel powerless and I’m not afraid to speak out. However, I do have reason enough not to bite the hand that feeds me. I can appreciate that Ms. Wolf has done some good things, but I doubt there are many school board members who haven’t done at least one good thing for our schools, so what I am saying is there ought to be as much qualification for a school board member as there is for a medical or law board.
I hope I have made myself clear and that you can share the logic behind my thoughts.
whew!
Yep let’s band together and insist on better enviroment, higher standards, less multiple choice work and more critical thinking, qualified teachers and wise leaders, and let us finally rid the system of the street like thugs from the bottom up and top down. I never want to encounter again bullying and lying leaders or rabid foaming at the mouth cafeteria monitors.
And throw that “Zero Tolerance Disciplanary Policy” in the trash along with the “Three Strikes You’re Out” and the Bush, Jr presidency!
Ms. Wolf,
I should probably write this is an email, but I don’t want anyone to think I have a personal vendetta against you.
Having said that, I consider your abstention on the PH Charter initiative one of the most respectful, professional, reasonable, and important actions I am aware of your doing.
Even if the possibility of a conflict of interest law suit was at the heart of it, I think the division that has developed since the original vote is an indication of a recognition by at least some board members of the lacking, if not conflicting, research of the efficacy of charter schools and the realization of the possibility that the charter school would only further propagate the de facto segregation already evident in our school system.
This very evening, I have spoken with many teachers in RPS who feel that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but it is important to remember that there are many squeaky wheels that are more like loose cannons. We realize that you are advocating for your precious children. We realize they are precious. However, we know that education and economics has a lot to do with why schools are the way they are. The grand question that we would like to answer is how to solve inequality/inequity in our schools. Unfortunately, many of us have come to the conclusion that there will never be an end to this problem. Perhaps this is due to capitalism. However, we have vowed never to give up fighting for equality and we are making every effort to better understand how to make this a reality.
The fact a charter school would remove funds from public education via the reduction of enrollment in other public schools is a major reason that anyone who believes in improving public education is important must abstain from supporting charter schools.
The fact that Mr. Day (I hope I have his name correct) left the meeting saying that “we must consider our legal options” is only a further indication of a position in which the will and effort to improve education is wrongly affected. If Mr. Day spends one dollar fighting the system, one hour rallying against it, it is time and money that would be better spent in improving the very schools that already exist.
I sincerely hope that people will recognize this force to dis-incorporate from public school will bear fruit only for those whose interests are served by it. We can not continue to try to avoid the negative in our schools. We must face it with full-hearts and bravely work together to say the time has come for our schools to be what everyone knows they can be. There is not a lack in funding as much as there is a lack in priority. We may just have to sacrifice a little something to get what we want. Someone might have to not drink a beer, see a movie, buy a new pair of shoes, get a manicure, go to the golf club, or some other such luxury, so that we may make our schools the priority that they should be, the highest priority.
Mr. Day, are you willing to sacrifice your efforts in one area to improve another?
Do those of you who fear for your children dare to embrace your neighborhood school and be a part of the team who can proudly say we have chosen to stay when others have ran because we believe that though RPS is in a dark hour, the darkest hour is just before the dawn of a new era? For it is through our schools that we will solve poverty, crime, blight, pollution, and other social ills that no amount of policing, welfare, imprisonment, abandonment, and fear ever will resolve.
What if RPS administration signs a contract, promising to support parents efforts if they choose to use their neighborhood school? Keep in mind that parents previously looking for a way out of RPS will not approve of street thugs ruling their children, staff breaking the law, for example, promoting one religion in the school, or untrained/unsupported teachers focusing on those academically behind while the rest wait or fall between the cracks.
Yes a contract would be good.
Another good idea that a fellow parent once suggested -have parents fill out exit surveys. Find out why families are leaving their neighborhood schools. This would help RPS zone in on problem areas and fix them.
By the way, the Charter contract should be amended and approved. Expecting the charter to be ADA compliant in one year is completely unfair.
If RPS had signed a contract like this, we would have to close 50 schools today. How many years has RPS had to become ADA compliant? 18 years? How many Richmond Public Schools can folk wheels themselves into?
I say approve this Charter and give them a fair amount of time for ADA compliance, like 3 to 5 years. I’d like to know of the other unfair things in that contract.
I’m thinking that our representatives want this Charter to fail because we know for a fact that most Richmond Public Schools would have failed under the same conditions and requirements.
[...] When we last covered the proposed “open enrollment” policy being considered by the Richmond School Board, it generated quite a bit of comment from local residents (126 comments to be exact). Well, the policy passed by an 8-1 vote last Monday night, according to the Times-Dispatch: The Richmond School Board passed its long-awaited new enrollment policy tonight by an 8-1 vote, opening the way for city parents to send their children to any school they choose, beginning next year. [...]