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Possibility of school closures pushes Conejo to revise choice policy
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More from EducationThe Conejo Valley Unified School District has revised its school choice policy for 2008-09, offering early transfers for students whose schools might be closed the next school year.
Under the recently approved policy, students whose schools would close by fall 2009 would have the opportunity to transfer a year early to their designated new schools.
Assistant Superintendent Janet Cosaro said the district's School Choice Committee decided to push back the application deadline for elementary schools to May 1 to wait for the board's decision on which two elementary schools to possibly close. The board might make a decision tonight. Applications for middle and high schools are due by April 1.
"We wanted to put that early transfer policy for students who would like to know exactly which schools they will be attending," Cosaro said. "We wanted to give families the information so they will not just blindly fill out the forms."
The district's Facilities Goals Committee has recommended University and Meadows schools as the top two candidates for closure as student enrollment continues to decline in the Conejo Valley.
The revised policy, which tightens some of the rules, allows students to choose a different school if their parent or guardian is a full-time employee and the school is near that parent's place of employment.
A third new feature of the policy covers the district's Junior Kindergarten pilot program. To join the new program at a particular school, a student must be eligible for kindergarten and turn at least 5 between July 1 and Dec. 2, Cosaro said.
Trustee Dolores Didio said the old policy was too lax. She said it allowed too many families to move their children to campuses outside of normal boundaries and contributed to a socioeconomic and diversity imbalance among students at the district's 20 elementary schools.
"I think if parents only look at test scores ... they are doing themselves a disservice," Didio said. "You have to visit the school and look at what kind of climate is at that school. Do they have good teachers? Are students learning?"
If the board decides to close University, students can submit early transfer applications for Aspen, Madrona, Weathersfield or Wildwood schools.
If Meadows closes, students there can request early transfers to Glenwood, Park Oak or Conejo schools.
Although they would have an early transfer option, some University and Meadows parents said the revised policy could make it more difficult for their students because their school choices would be limited.
"School choice is a great opportunity for families to find a school that works for their child," said Cathy Nealon, whose son attends Meadows. "For us, Meadows worked out really well. We don't want it to close, and if it does ... we don't even have the priority to go to (any) school that we want."
Cosaro said students would have the rest of this school year and then another full school year before any campus closes. The policy probably will go through another revision before then, she said.
According to officials, the district received a total of 1,178 school-choice applications for primary and secondary schools for the current school year.
Posted by John_Hollister on March 18, 2008 at 3:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was excited to read this morning that the CVUSD Board had proposed changes to the school choice policy, only to discover that it discriminatorily applies solely to those who already face the potential end of their schools and culture. While I totally agree that the lax choice policy has contributed to the fix the Board finds themselves, restricting choice to the families who are losing their neighborhood schools adds insult to injury. The irony that we will be forced to drive to seats vacated by others who have choiced out is deafening. In fact, the “kind gesture” to allow people to move next year will only accelerate the demise of our fabulous school’s last year. The insensitivity continues.
If this weren’t enough, a rumor is floating about an idea to send the entire Meadows campus to Glenwood. This would require displacing even more Glenwood neighborhood children to Acacia. For the record, Meadows families have the highest respect for Glenwood: the children, families and staff. In fact, like Meadows, Glenwood is exceptional in creating programs that meet the needs of the children in the neighborhood. Meadows and Glenwood children are friends on teams, at church, on scout troops and in secondary schools. This process has adversely impacted our relationships. The insanity is that as many as 500 children will be driven to their respective elementary schools rather than walking (175 already choice out of Glenwood, an additional 30-40 would need to relocate to Acacia, and the 200+ children from Meadows). With all due respect, it is not just about API scores, despite the focus of the Board’s characterization of the impact of Diversity on this performance measure. It is whether combining two excellent schools will result in a better environment for both or dilute their excellence, in an attempt to appease the different needs of these two proud neighborhoods.
Let’s harness the creativity and energy of our Community to draw back to the District the many who have left to private or home schooling, cut fat from the budget, look to the City for some assistance, address boundaries, and review the school choice program BEFORE cutting to the bone.
John Hollister
Thousand Oaks
Save the schools
Posted by 5kits on March 18, 2008 at 5:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
With all due respect, the school board needs to shut the process down. Time after time we hear new changes to the process, exemptions for some schools but not others, changing criteria, not correcting errors because this merely needs to "come to an end." I am embarrassed that the school board has taken this destructive path, causing people to feel slighted, to resort to immature name calling, pitting schools against each other. The right thing to do is to call this off, make all out efforts to cut costs while aggressively marketing our schools, bring in partnerships and a wealth of other resources to work on long term solutions. Harness the momentum of the community, don't destroy it.
Posted by aloparc on March 18, 2008 at 11:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
CVUSD enrollment is not declining because of demographics. The National Center for Education Statistics indicates that K-5 aged children are projected to increase 9% through 2016. (See pg 5 of the pdf file - first paragraph)
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008060.pdf
Would any public school official ADMIT that declining enrollment is due to crummy academic programs implemented in the government run schools? Not likely, but the plain truth is that the converse of the old adage that parents flock to schools with outstanding programs is equally true.
In March of 2005 CVUSD had the highest enrollment figures it had ever obtained. Real Estate prices had peaked and were beginning to level off. (Note all these kids are already living here). But by the fall of 2005 something changed drastically. Over 500 fewer k-5 students returned to CVUSD classrooms in the fall of 2005 (enrollment dropped at ALL GRADE LEVELS). So what changed?
In March of 2005 parents went before the school board and asked to be given a choice for students to use traditional math instead of the “whole math” program called Everyday Math.
http://www.toacorn.com/News/2005/0324...
http://www.toacorn.com/News/2005/0331...
But the board rejected the parents request in May of 2005. By June of 2005 parents were writing to tell of their intentions to leave the district because of Everyday Math.
http://www.toacorn.com/news/2005/0602...
By Sept. 2005 over 500 fewer K-5 students returned to CVUSD classrooms - enough to close one school. (figures per Jeff Baarstad)
In the summer of 2006 the school board election again highlighted the district’s grossly inferior Everyday Math program along with the lagging API Similar Schools scores for CVUSD that are 40% dependent on student math achievement.
By the fall of 2006 an additional 400 K-5 CVUSD students left the district, enough to close a second school.
CVUSD uses a "whole math" program that does not teach the standard algorithms and does NOT require mastery of the basic fundamentals of mathematics to automaticity. CVUSD’s Everyday Math program is crippling the ability of many of our students to go into the fields of medicine, science, and engineering.
In an affluent community, any school district which refuses to provide the academic challenge its customers want, will find itself on the loosing end of that battle and suffering declining enrollment.
Raising taxes will not reverse declining enrollment, nor will it keep all of CVUSD schools open. The district continues to make poorly advised academic and financial decisions with little regard for the consequences.
EVERYDAY MATH = DECLINING ENROLLMENT = SCHOOL CLOSURES
CVUSD needs to reject Everyday Math this spring when it comes up for renewal.
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