Thoughts from the meeting on June 6 Jun 7. 2012 | Comments (3)
Tonight's meeting went longer than the 1 1/2 hours originally scheduled and I'm sure all have their own feedback and impressions. I welcome all to give their impressions and feedback here in the blog or if others would like to create a forum somewhere else - would welcome that too.
Turnout was great - I'd say there were somewhere between 80-100 folks who showed up.
Agenda:
1. Introductions and OUSD's understanding of the issue
Here David Montes de Oca gave an overview of his role, policy and procedure
2. Community Introductions
Here I presented the petition and signatures to David Montes de Oca and many attendees posed their questions and concerns to David Montes de Oca while he took notes
3. Overview of OUSDs response to questions and concerns
Here David talked through a lot of policy and history in response to point #2 and the recognized need for an evaluation of schools throughout the district as a priority
4. Remaining questions and next steps
5. Follow-up engagement in late September (after enrollment confirmed for 2012 - 2013)
The net net for me was that OUSD has recognized that there is an issue with capacity at Crocker and will prioritize this as an issue to have a full school evaluation to have this addressed. This was the initial goal of the creation of this petition, so that's a decent sign for future years. However, they do not have any changes that seem to be going in place for the folks that apply for next year which means we will probably see at least the same number of issues for next year as previous. It did not seem like a quick reversal of the new boundaries based on capacity is part of the current plan.
I did stay after and speak to David Montes de Oca who did say that we should continue with the petition. He did say that the comments on the petition are most helpful and he said he would like to hear some creative ideas from the community - a few of which that seemed to peak some interest...
* Folks within the community who volunteered to help with the data who have statistician type backgrounds.(apparently David Kakishiba had interest in this)
* Idea to build up within Crocker and use Lakeview as a temp school during that construction
* Poll within overcrowded schools of who would be sending siblings in future to help with predictions of enrollments for future classes
I'm sure there are more. Please send your feedback and ideas directly to:
School Board: email: David.Kakishiba@ousd.k12.ca.us OUSD Phone: 510 879-8199 dial 3 for board members and then 2 for David
Representative of Superintendent of Schools: email: david.montes@ousd.k12.ca.us 510-879-8349
Principal of Crocker: Elizabeth Rhine bethrhine@me.com
Thanks so much for your involvement and feedback - please post your thoughts and if you think there are any good next steps that we can have between now and the meeting in late September.
Tara
IMHO.....I would have liked less conversation about studies and more discussion about solutions.
Redistricting only seems to be part of the solution since Crocker had over-capacity issues before the boundaries were re-drawn, so it would have been nice for him to say sorry and admit that they should not have increased the encatchment area for a school that is already over capacity, however, here are a few ideas for potential solutions that i would like to share with our OUSD rep, district rep. and the principal:
Add a fourth kindergarten class for the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 school years. Send acceptance letters and wait list status based Crocker's capacity with 4 kindergarten classes.(This was the fix in 2012/2013 - keep doing this).
Consider increasing class size by 2-4 students to accommodate all neighbor kids. I would rather have my child attend our neighborhood school with a higher class size than be forced to attend a non-neighborhood school.
Raise money and commit to parent volunteers to provide additional class room staff for increased class size. I would commit to volunteering once a week in my child's classroom.
Increase communication with families currently enrolled and families that would like to enroll at crocker - in order to create a simple forecast number as to the number of kindergarten spots required for neighbor siblings and neighborhood kids in the years to come.(This seems common sense to avoid last minute stress and panic all round).
Keep the wait list active after the start of school year and for future school years - allowing neighborhood kids to transfer back into their neighborhood school as opportunities arise through attrition (It is my understanding that OUSD does not currently keep the wait list active after the start of school).
Honor families 2nd, 3rd, etc.. choices instead of defaulting to a school in the mega boundary that was not listed as one of their choices. (mega boundary being the secondary boundary of the junior high encatchment area used to assign students.)
Re-configure the priority enrollment for Crocker and place neighbor kids above siblings from outside our boundaries.
Re-draw the boundaries with a compromise in mind; ie include homes at the base of Trestle Glen and Longridge with Lakeshore Ave as natural dividing line. (Though as above this is not going to solve over capacity).
What do you think? Could these items be the focus of further petitioning and conversations? It would be great to secure a meeting with OUSD and/or our school board rep sooner rather than later. Why do we need to wait till September to have further discussions about potential solutions the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 school years! Who at OUSD and the school board will advocate on our behalf? When is the next school board meeting? ahhhhh so many questions...so few answers?!
Katy Murphy Blog has a new blog posting which focuses on the boundary issue.
Here's Katy's link:
http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/2012/06/07/boundary-change-fallout-at-crocker-highlands/comment-page-1/#comment-53642