Hello all, I just wanted to send a quick update because I didn't have a chance to weigh in on the neighborhood schools conversation. NEAT is cosponsoring a public forum on May 23 on this very issue. A proposal has been submitted to divide the city into regions and develop a set of criteria for the composition of regions. There would be a limited number of citywide schools, but beyond that parents could only choose schools within their region. (Although I suppose they could go outside their region if they provided their own transportation.) The criteria for the composition of regions might include types of programs or other variables. The central question has been framed as, "How do we offer school choice while keeping transportation costs low and treating all schools fairly?" I agree it's a sticky-wicket. On the one hand, we long for the neighborhood schools when kids played ball outside and built life-long relationships. On the other, we did desegregation for a reason. We continue to have pockets of cultural communities within the city that any "regional map" should take into consideration. But these are snapshots in time. Would the regions change as communities shift? Should they be tied to neighborhood council boundaries to inform planning, community-building work? Should they be tied to the recreation center boundaries recently discussed? Should a city map of all three be coherent? Part of the struggle has to do with disparities in how dollars are distributed. Magnet schools were created with federal desegregation dollars no longer available. It costs more to offer Montessori, environmental science, AP, IB and other programs. Today, schools that offer costly programs receive more dollars than neighborhood schools, weighting the balance in their favor. If we don't do something, would the neighborhood schools be the most likely close (least viable) as we continue to experience declining enrollments? How many magnet school programs would fold if we just leveled the playing field by doling out all dollars on a straight per pupil basis? (perhaps all?) Wouldn't this eliminate an essential strength of the Saint Paul schools? I had a conversation with a Saint Paul parent who thinks we should be doing a better job of reporting gains - the progress students make from one year to the next. It begs the questions, "Shouldn't school closing decisions be based on where student achievement is lagging? But is that fair in the context of unequal distribution of dollars?" Another concern I have has to do with innovation. There's a lot of reasons to consider pre-K to grade 3 and grade 4 or 5 to grade 8 schools. Saint Paul has one K-3 school that I know of (Roosevelt Elementary on the West Side). A number of years ago, I thought it would be good to put a grade 4 or 5 to 8 school in at Vento (I think it's big enough). Can this kind of innovation (thinking of new ways of doing things) happen in the context of regions? [I'm not saying that the Vento grade 5-8 idea is a good one (I don't know), I'm just saying we should be thinking 'out of the box' and I'm worried that regions would further inhibit what's already hard to do.] Another concern I have has to do with the community-based variables. There are pockets of mobility in Saint Paul where families move in, fail to pay rent and move on in six months. A number of years ago I proposed to then Mayor Coleman that we create "education development zones" much like economic development zones where we focus resources to address community-based needs (jobs, medical care, transportation, housing, domestic violence, chemical dependency - the kinds of things that make children vulnerable to high mobility). They've successfully done this at John A. Johnson Elementary here on the Eastside. Shouldn't a map of the regions take into consideration the migratory patterns of at risk families? If this data is available, shouldn't the city be taking it into consideration in their planning efforts? As the city moves forward with planning and makes improvements, the patterns will shift. How will this impact the composition of regions? Would the Title I dollars (the federal dollars rolled out to schools based on percent of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch) vary from year-to-year based on demographics by region? By school? (I think that's how the federal law reads.) How are Title I dollars currently allocated? I know there's a formula, but don't know what it is. And what about oversight? Does the district divide the dollars by region and then roll them out to the schools based on programs? What if a site-council within a school wants to introduce a new program? Do the site councils within the regions hold an annual meeting to decide how to distribute the dollars within the region? Do we create regional councils to oversee the distribution of dollars and school performance (gains)? Do we tie the dollars to student achievement/gains? I certainly don't purport to have the answers, but I do believe these are essential questions impacting every school, every neighborhood, every cultural community in the city. Before closing, I'd like to point out that despite our school choice system, SPPS ranked 45th out of 168 school districts with over 1,000 enrollment on "Transportation Expenditures" in the February 2004 report, "Financial Trends of Minnesota School Districts" produced by the Minnesota State Auditor. Districts 1-44 are a mix of metro area and rural school districts. The report is still available online at http://www.auditor.state.mn.us/default.aspx?page=rptgid03schooldistrict Per the MDE School Report Cards, the district pays $475 per student for transportation. The state average is $436. Are we willing to invest $39/student to preserve school choice? (This presumes no busing. The actual difference would be less since we'd still have some busing even if all neighborhood schools.) I think this is an important conversation. Worth weighing in on. Details are posted at http://www.stpaulneat.org/Upcoming_Events2.html Flyer translations will be available soon. --Jennifer Armstrong Payne/Phalen ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul
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