This week has been a big week with regard to the proposal to change boundaries in the San Carlos School District. Almost two weeks ago I posted information about the initial proposal that came out of the enrollment subcommittee.
Since that that time, we’ve had a community town hall meeting, multiple school site meetings, and a board meeting last night to discuss the specifics. In general, there continues to be broad support for these changes, including among board members, school administrators, and parents. However, a number of concerns were brought up by both current and future parents about some of the changes. Our Superintendent spent a ton of time this week meeting with folks to explain the problem we’re facing and the goals of a solution like this. Although there was a fair bit of misinformation floating out there, Dr. Baker has cleared most of that up and I believed addressed most of these concerns.
There were some good ideas that came out of these meetings, the most practical of them being that there may be a few streets in the current Arundel area to be moved that are most naturally associated with Arundel though their walkability, etc. Obviously a modified plan needs to ensure that the enrollment numbers work out, but the Superintendent is likely to propose some minor changes in that part of the plan. Also, the Board agreed to delay the final vote on the proposal until January 21st. By that time, we should have a new proposal with enough time for both the Board and the public to digest it.
This continues to be an essential action that we must take, and I’m excited it’s nearing its completion. If anything, I consider this to be a very conservative and gradual plan, as it doesn’t affect current students or their siblings, and still gives preferences to new students in affected areas to have first right to their “old” school. So, if anything we must think of this as a long-term plan with its full effect not happening for 5-7 years. And we also must expect that in the next few years, we will continue to have enrollment issues at some of the schools. But all in all, this is the right decision and puts us on the right track. Later this year and in th future we will continue to address other issues such as ways to increase capacity in general in our schools, middle school boundaries, and other enrollment-related items.
Is the video posted of the Board meeting, I heard that there were several concerns raised on the proposed changes, but I haven’t heard exactly what those are? Is there a link to the video or a summary posted somewhere?
Thanks
School Board meetings are not videotaped, so the only record is the minutes taken. The unapproved minutes for the December 3rd meeting are posted here.
However, very few concerns about the boundary changes were brought up the board meeting itself. Most of the concerns were sent via e-mail or were presented at community meetings that Dr. Baker had prior to the meeting. Most of those concerns were regarding some of the streets in the Devonshire Canyon area which people believed were walkable to Arundel and therefore would be more appropriate to stay in the school zone. So, that is partly why the Superintendent proposed to delay the vote until January, take a tour of that area, and potentially re-look at the map. I suspect that at tonight’s meeting, Dr. Baker will proposed a revised map taking into those considerations…however, any proposal must still ensure that the numbers work out, and that it accomplishes the goal of better matching capacities of the schools with the student population in the various zones.
Hi Seth,
Can you specify what the following comment means –
This continues to be an essential action that we must take, and I’m excited it’s nearing its completion. If anything, I consider this to be a very conservative and gradual plan, as it doesn’t affect current students or their siblings, and still gives preferences to new students in affected areas to have first right to their “old” school.
Yes, I’m happy to. The “essential action” part refers to the fact that there has been a significant imbalance in our four elementary schools for many years, and it has caused many problems, including long waiting lists at some of the schools, significant slack in others that create an overflow status and only one place for out-of-district students, and little predictability among parents as to what school their child may get in. However, the boundary change is hardly an immediate panacea, which I guess is the answer to your second question. Unlike a situation where one does a boundary change and moves the current students to a new school the following year, we are not moving any students. Every student who attends one of our schools has the right to stay there until they graduate from that school. Also, we continue to give preference to current students’ siblings. So, as a practical matter these boundary changes affect future students who currently do not have an older sibling. Therefore, it will take over five years for the changes to have a full effect. In addition, for next year’s incoming students, we also give them a first preference to attend their formerly zoned school. So, all of these elements combined make for an extremely conservative and gradual implementation plan.