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[Ms. R]

I need help! Please provide any info on the following: What does school choice mean now? What will be changing about school choice & transportation? How will my situation (detailed below) affect my family's school choices and transportation options?

I'm looking to purchase my first home but am scared that my child won't be able to attend school 12 if we move out of the neighborhood. Right now I'm so limited to home purchase options because of this. There are so many beautiful homes to choose from in the city (both outside of the neighborhood) but I'm under the impression that soon the district may be making a move to require children attend their neighborhood school. What if I believe the neighborhood school to be an under-performer or substandard?

I'm so conflicted. I'm almost convinced that we should move out of the city because of all of my uncertainty with school choice and where my child will attend. Its a big deal for me, a deal breaker actually. I'm driving my realtor crazy because I can't make up my mind about what neighborhood I want to live in. I can't choose a home until I understand my options or lack thereof.

Thanks in advance to the FCPN community! I appreciate any info/advise you have!

[Hilary]

Ms. R,

At the moment, your child/children can keep going to School 12 even if you move to - not only a different neighborhood, but out of the zone as well - so basically, anywhere in the city. (I'm NOT sure if siblings who aren't in the school yet would be able to go if you moved out of the South zone.)

If the school board stays in control, I don't see that changing significantly - even if there were a move to encourage people to attend their neighborhood schools, there is a strong commitment to choice as well.

I don't know what the mayor's vision of neighborhood schools is. I would very much like to know! But as someone who has been involved in the school choice/neighborhood schools question for many years now, I can tell you I would fight hard to make sure no child was "required" to go to their neighborhood school (and I say that as a proponent of neighborhood schools!)

Honestly, I can't see your child being forced to switch schools, no matter who's in charge.  I think everyone appreciates the value of children being able to continue in the same school. (Originally the school choice plan wasn't supposed to let people stay in their schools if they moved out of the ZONE (not the neighborhood) but people just move too much, so everyone has been allowed to stay at their school no matter what - one reason busing costs are so high, and why the zones are so meaningless, except as an instrument of torture for incoming kindergarten parents!

I know I am rambling without having much real information, but I don't think you should move out of the city over this! (And what a terrible irony that would be - when Duffy's whole goal is to keep families IN the city!!!)

I will see if I can find anyone more knowledgeable to tell you more ...

[Hilary]

Hi again
I spoke to Karen Sangmeister in placement who confirmed the current policy, which is:

Parents can stay at the school where their children start kindergarten until the final grade at that school, and if the parent moves to any location in the city more than a mile and a half from the school, we will bus the child.

Also:

Sibling preference right now applies to any school in the district, provided the older child attends there next year. However, parents haveto register by March 31! And, of course, still live in the district.


Karen added, though, that obviously she doesn't know the mayor's plans.  I emailed the mayor to ask him to clarify this - I'll let you know if/when he writes back!  But I also spoke to someone who knows the mayor and has spoken to him about this issue, and she thought the mayor is not trying to up-end the choice system, just make sure that children are guaranteed the RIGHT to go to their neighborhood school.

(At the moment, you are guaranteed the right to go to your neighborhood school if you go through the kindergarten lottery.)

[Hilary]

Got an answer from the mayor's office! Here it is:

Under the Mayor’s proposal, those who want to attend their neighborhood school would be guaranteed seats in that school for their children.  No one would be required to attend a neighborhood school.
Richard Hannon
Mayor’s Office

[watdi33]

I think that one reason that this promise of guaranteeing families a seat is "empty" is that some neighborhoods have more students than seats available at their neighborhood school. For example let's say that #12 has 450 seats and it so happens that 475 eligible students live in that neighborhood... 25 students have to go somewhere else.
This happened when Madison opened and the building was quickly overcrowded, which brough on another whole set of problems.
Mr Brizard has already heard parents on that complaint and I am hopeful that he is doing his best to address our concerns. We don't need the Mayor to run schools for that.

[Ms. R]

Great point. Having too many students in one class makes learning and focusing unnecessarily difficult. Sometimes even as a professional in my work environment I find it challenging to keep my team on task and focused if there are too many people involved in the discussion/meeting. I don't know how the teachers could be expected to perform in those conditions. We really need to do a better job setting staff and students up for success.

School #12 does an amazing job though, which is why its so key for my family to stay in that school as long as possible.

On a side note, what would you do if you wanted to transfer your child to a different school, possibly a charter school? What is the process, timeframe, likelihood that your request would be accepted, etc?

[Hilary]

Transferring is pretty straightforward. To transfer to another city school, you fill out an elementary transfer request from June 1 on (these are first-come, first-serve, so if you want to transfer to a highly sought after school, you want to get in there on June 1.  (Actually you should check the date - it was June 1 last year.) I believe you cannot do this without your child's current principal knowing.

There is a thread about transfers here.

To transfer to a charter school, you would need to go through the regular application process for that school, which is different for each school. I think most of them have web sites. (You are making me think, we should have a database of this kind of information.)

In either case, once you get a place at the new school, you would need to decide – they won't let you hold a place at both schools.