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Post by Linnea reply on Mar 21, 2008 18:57:24 GMT -5
Linnea: You state the following:
One difference is that they have to provide transportation for CF students, but not for OE kids. If you have a period of several years where some kids in a certain neighborhood are going to one school and some are going to another, it could get pretty complicated.
No, our district will pick up OE students, OE have to get themselves to the nearest bus stop from their house, would be a outlying bus stop.
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Post by FYI on Mar 21, 2008 21:25:48 GMT -5
Linnea: In one of your posts you asked " Open enrollment students have to reapply each year, don't they?" The answer to that question is that the State of Iowa Code says no. Once they are in a district they are in for the duration of their school career unless they decide otherwise. Again, this is just for the district, they are eligible to be redirected to a different attendance center within that district just as resident students can be. The various members of the school board as well as Dr. Stoakes and Cindi McDonald have all said at various times that open enrolled students should be able to stay at their current attendance center (they are apparently less concerned that resident children be allowed to stay in their current school), and the new oe guidelines also state that an open enrolled child shall be moved from one attendance center to another only once during elementary school. Anyone see any guarantee like that for resident children? I haven't.
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Post by cfschools on Mar 22, 2008 9:55:07 GMT -5
So FYI, let me see if I understand you. I guess I assumed that the open enrollment applicants that were approved on March 10th were continuing students. I figured they were just reapplying but had been attending these schools already. Are you telling me these are new students? New that have never been to Southdale or Lincoln before? So they pull students who have been attending for several years out because of overcrowding to let other new students from out of the district in? Really, people, I just cant' understand that. Those HAVE to be continuing students. Please, someone, tell me they are continuing students!
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Post by FYI on Mar 22, 2008 11:02:30 GMT -5
Open enrolled students do NOT reapply each year. Every time you see a new open enrollment request in the school board minutes it indicates a student that has not open enrolled in the past.
When Dr. Stoakes says continuing students, or when you look at the school board minutes at the open enrollment requests and they have a C by them, that means that they are students who lived in CF and attended CF schools (although not necessarily the school they are open enrolling to) whom have now moved out of the district but wish to continue attending CF schools. Some may feel this makes a difference and these children should be allowed to continue in the school of their choice, but I still do not see why, if they have moved, they should somehow get to stay in the school they want to, when there are other CF residents, that have not chosen to move, whom now have to change schools.
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Post by kidscount on Mar 22, 2008 11:59:43 GMT -5
alrighty then, perhaps someone could explain to me the advantage of living inside the cedar falls school district border line? the only advantage i can figure is that we get to pay the taxes that support our schools to educate everyone at the school of their choice except our own children. no wonder there is overcrowding in cf schools. this school board apparently has taken on the task of educating the whole frigging state, as long as they get more money...to build and improve the schools that our children don't get to go to.
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Post by kidscount on Mar 22, 2008 12:04:19 GMT -5
has anyone gone back through the board minutes over the last 18 months (the approximate time the committee has been studying the overcrowding problem) and counted up how many open enrolled students this board has approved into the elementary schools?
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Post by kidscount on Mar 23, 2008 9:25:01 GMT -5
i have another question. since open enrolled students don't have to re-apply each year, once they are accepted into a district, does that mean there is no way to deny them admission in the future, ever? as we all have seen, things change. what if the receiving district no longer has room at any school? weird system.
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Post by linnea on Mar 27, 2008 11:20:38 GMT -5
Okay, I stand corrected. The district will permit OE students to ride the buses (though I understand they have to pay for it). But they don't re-route the existing bus routes to accomodate OE kids.
I'm learning a lot about OE - I never looked into it before, since *all* of Cedar Falls schools are good enough for my children.
I got curious, so I did go through the board minutes and tally up the OE students in the elementary schools. Here are the results (feel free to verify them if you wish; one or two of my tally marks may have gone astray)
06-07 school year - new open enrolls:
Cedar Heights - 7 Hansen - 4 Lincoln - 6 North Cedar - 8 Orchard Hill - 5 Southdale - 3 unspecified - 1
06-07 school year - continuing (former CF residents who moved to other districts but continued at CF schools):
Cedar Heights - 5 Hansen - 0 Lincoln - 2 North Cedar - 6 Orchard Hill - 2 Southdale - 0
07-08 - new open enrolls:
Cedar Heights - 11 Hansen - 0 Lincoln - 2 North Cedar - 3 Orchard Hill - 6 Southdale - 4 unspecified - 5
07-08 school year - continuing (former CF residents who moved to other districts but continued at CF schools):
Cedar Heights - 12 Hansen - 0 Lincoln - 7 North Cedar - 2 Orchard Hill - 7 Southdale - 3
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Post by Linnea on Mar 27, 2008 12:53:23 GMT -5
And here are the numbers of total open enrollment for 2007-2008, from the Boundary Committee minutes of 10/15/07. It does not specify how many had lived in CF before OE-ing there and how many hadn't.
Cedar Heights – 46 students; Hansen – 15 students; Lincoln – 19 students; North Cedar –19 students; Orchard Hill – 40 students; Southdale – 16 students
Notice that the two schools which are the most crowded have the fewest OE students. So much for the idea that the district is "crowding out" resident students by letting OE ones in.
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Post by guest on Mar 27, 2008 15:33:31 GMT -5
Notice that the two schools which are the most crowded have the fewest OE students.
I am guessing that the two schools to which you are speaking would be Hansen and Lincoln. Now, why do you think they are the most crowded? Cedar Heights is most crowded with an attendance of 515, and a maximum of 543. Hansen stands at 483 and Lincoln at 452 - both also with maximums of 543. Yet Lincoln would appear to get offloaded the most. Why? Because Hansen and Lincoln are the closest to North Cedar. This really doesn't have anything to do with uncrowding schools that are crowded the most.
There are 29 elementary classes in the district that are capped or are 1 away from being capped. Hansen and Lincoln have 8 of those. Cedar Heights and Orchard Hill have 16.
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Post by linnea on Mar 27, 2008 15:54:05 GMT -5
No, I was taking Hansen and Southdale as the most crowded, since they're the ones that kept being mentioned at the meetings as crowded.
Can you show me where you got the information about caps and maximums? I'm not doubting you, I'd just like to look at the information myself.
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Post by guest on Mar 27, 2008 16:37:06 GMT -5
There's two different sheets. One with targets and maximums and one with caps and 1 away from being capped. I'm not sure if they are listed online. If you can't find them on the website, maybe call the administration office and ask for a copy?
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Post by linnea on Mar 27, 2008 16:46:02 GMT -5
Thanks!
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Post by forthekids on Mar 28, 2008 22:18:38 GMT -5
Linnea, other districts have allowed children to finish at their current schools when boundaries have changed IF the parents will provide the transportation (the bus comes through for the new school only. That's an easy way to do it. Would it have hurt our district to do that? Also, how is it making better use of resources to put kids at North Cedar? The school has hardly had any updates in a number of years as it has been hard to justify with the declining enrollment. This plan is trying to put more kids where the resources are already stretched. NC has wonderful teachers and staff, and they have done so much with the children there to improve test scores the last few years. It would likely have a detrimental effect on the kids already there to up the enrollment so much without some changes to the school. The boundary committee realized this and didn't want to move too many students until the facility was upgraded--for the benefit of those coming and those already there.
Also what you are missing in Stoakes's quote is that the board moved out the residents, then said oh gee look there is room for most of the open enrolled students--oh maybe a couple will be capped out, but of course we'll have to look at them individually to see if it would be okay to move them. cf resident is right--inconsistency!!!!!!!!!!!! I bet any OE students that say they don't want to be moved will get to stay right where they are. All they'll have to do is threaten to leave the district.
cfschools--contact your state legislators to work on this at the state level.
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Post by linnea on Apr 17, 2008 10:41:16 GMT -5
When I say that putting more kids at North Cedar is a better use of resources, it's because they will be in smaller classes, and thus get more of their teacher's time and attention. I don't buy the idea that a brand-new building makes for better learning. I'd rather have my kid in a class of 16 at North Cedar than a class of 25 at some other school.
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