BOR Meeting for November 13, 2007

1.) Employees of the Month

Background: Each month the District honor employees nominated for Employee of the Month. This month we honored:

Cindy Wu, Danilelle Alcala, Michelle Thomas, Gloria Munoz-Hughes, Amanda Rider and Lara Weber, Kindergarten Teacher Team, Ruby Bridges Elementary
Mary Baker-Hendy, Resource Specialist, Paden Elementary

Fiscal Implications: None

Superintendent Goal: Goal #4 Recruit and retain highly qualified employees.

2.) Elimination of the Senior Project from Graduation Requirements Beginning 2007/08 School Year

Background: Last year an AUSD task force reviewed the purpose and meaning of the Senior Project as a Graduation requriement. At this time, staff is recommending the elimination of the Senior Project as graduation reqiurement.

The Board approved the elimination of the Senior Project as a graduation requirement.

Fiscal Implications: None, but better use of resources

Superintendent Goal: #1 Close the achievement gap

Background: At the October 9th BOE meeting, the Superintendent created two task forces to address issues related to address educational excellence and equity when focusing on boundaries and facilities.

The Elementary Task Force members are charged with presenting recommendation to the Board of Education in February based on the proposed timeline.

The Elementary Facility Capacity Task Force will look at four types of options to address the capacity issue: changing boundaries, creating magnet programs which draw students to under-enrolled schools, diverting students to schools with capacity, and the feasibility of increasing capacity at an affected school.

The Task Force will present each option in terms of its impact on facilities, finances, and the school's educational program.

Lapkoff & Bogalet Demographic Research will present a report evaulating the demographic study (1.4Mb PDF) that was finalized in June, 2007.

The 25+ page report covers a number of areas and will be presented at community meeting on December 5th at Haight School:

• Evaulation of last year's enrollment forecast
• Define "enrollment"
• Where student live, not where they attend school
• Students on the boundaries of the attendance areas
• Current versus Future students
• Forecasting methodology; Edison used as example
• Special Day Class status
• Define "capacity"
• Number of rooms per school
• Usage of rooms
• Regular education
• Special Day Class, Resource rooms
• Miscellaneous rooms
• Initial definition of capacity: how rooms are currently used
• District might consider changes in room usage to increase capacity at some schools
• Compare enrollments and capacity for each school attendance area
• Options for dealing with the mismatch between enrollment and capacity

The demographers will present an evaluation of last year's forecast that compares their forecast to actual Fall 2007 enrollments.

Background: At the August 14 BOE meeting, staff bought a revision to Administrative Regulations (AR) 5116.1 to improve kindergarten enrollment procedures (Kindergarten Round-Up). Staff also proposed changes to the enrollment priority order for consideration for other grades, transfer requests, etc.

In summary, the proposed revision recommended a change from a "First Come, First Served" basis of returning kindergarten enrollment applications, to a random drawing process that would be used only when a school was over capacity for the number of applications it received. Public comment at the August 14 meeting requested that the District provide more time for parents to be informed about the proposed change and that the District explore additional options for making enrollment decisions when a school is over capacity.

As a result of this request, the Superintendent scheduled a series of five school neighborhood meetings to hear from parents on this issue. Meetings were scheduled on Monday, October 8 (Bay Farm and *Earhart), Wednesday, October 10 (*Haight and Washington), Monday, October 15 ( Edison and *Otis), Tuesday, October 16 (*Franklin and Lum) and Wednesday, October 17 (Paden and *Ruby Bridges). (*Asterisk indicates where the meeting will took place.) The meetings were also attended by pre-school parents who became aware of this issue. Parents were also invited to share their comments and suggestion by email and the District website provided information and updates on the meetings.

Input gathered from the meetings was extremely helpful in understanding the perspective of new parents entering our system and re-affirming the high value that our community places on Alameda's neighborhood schools. The discussion also produced several excellent suggestions for improving our overall enrollment process. These suggestions will be developed and implemented by staff for 2008-09.

After thoughtful consideration of input garnered from community meetings and other communications, staff is recommending the revision to AR5116.1 as originally proposed. While many parents said they would prefer to maintain a First Come, First Serve process, most parents acknowledged that a random drawing was a fair and equitable means of determining priority. Most people also recognized that a random drawing provides no advantage to any parent, regardless of personal circumstances. As public school educators, it is our obligation to recommend policies and regulations that are both equitable and fair.

For additional background of the activities leading to this agenda item, you read this recap.

Each year during the month of January, a two week initial enrollment period (Kindergarten Round-Up) will be held.
The enrollment period for 2008-09 will be held from January 22 to February 1, 2008.
If after the initial two week period there are more students than available spaces,
Space is determined by initial enrollment projections made by the district in early January. If there are not more students than proejcted space, this process ends and we revert back to first come, first serve for those students that enroll after the two week period has ended.
first enrollment priority will be given to siblings of currently enrolled students in grades one to four living in the zone of attendance
Only applies to students within that school attendance zone 2006-07 School Attendance Zones (a very large 6MB file) boundary maps are posted at the schools and the district web site.
that have returned a completed application
A completed application consists of enrollment forms, presentation of original birth certificate, immunization record that is medically up to date, parent/guardian picture identification and proof of residency with original documents.
within the two week period. The remaining students
Those without resident siblings in that school.
will be assigned enrollment priority numbers through a random drawing.
Held within one week of the end of the two week period.
These students will then be enrolled until all spaces are filled.
Example - A school projected space for 60 kindergartners and recieved 64 completed applications, including 10 that have siblings already in the school. The 10 kinergartners with siblings would be enrolled. The remaining 54 applicants would be randomly assigned number 1-54. A representative of student services will randomly assign the number. Number 1-50 would also be enrolled. Numebrs 51-54 would be subject to the following.
The remaining students will also be provisionally enrolled, and given a notice that they may be placed at a different school.
When students are diverted from their home school, subject to available seats, we place them at the nearest school to thier home school. We also work with families to provide other choices if the next closest school does not work for daycare or other family concerns. After two week round-up, remaining seats will be filled on a first come - first serve basis.
Depending on how many students a school is over capacity, the district may open an additional class at the school,
This depends on the availability of a suitable classroom.
or divert these students to neighboring schools. This reassignment may take place at any time between May 1st and the 20th school day of the new school year.
The timing of reassignment depends on the capacity and level of enrollment at the neighboring schools where students may possibly be sent.

Enrollment Priorities

In 2006, there was a Go Green presentation at a PTA Council meeting.

Fiscal Implications: None

Superintendent Goal:

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Last modified: October 16, 2007

Disclaimer: This website is the sole responsibility of Mike McMahon. It does not represent any official opinions, statement of facts or positions of the Alameda Unified School District. Its sole purpose is to disseminate information to interested individuals in the Alameda community.