APS: Elementary Walk Zone surveys out

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03/07/2018 12:15

Subject: APS: Elementary Walk Zone surveys out

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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:It isn't a "weird" thought. The two schools are not the same.

1. The calendar is different. Many families don't want to send their kids and live under that calendar.

2. The UMC community buy-in is different resulting in parents who transfer out because they don't like the school's scores and academics.

3. The leadership at the school is different. Barrett is known to have a strong principle. Barcroft was on its way up with community involvement and scores when the well-liked principle retired and lots of her loyal staff left - school then went back downhill. New principle was terrible according to many and she is gone with a new one installed. Hope she is better.

4. UMC scores are a bit lower at Barcroft.

If you don't see a difference, then you don't care to. Some of us do and want to see improvements at Barcroft.

The sores and community involvement WHERE ON THEIR WAY UP under the previous long-time principal --- WHILE THE MODIFIED CALENDAR WAS IN PLACE. It wasn't the calendar that caused the decline after that - it was the new principal. Give the current principal a legitimate chance (WITH the calendar) and see what happens.

Nobody said the calendar caused the decline. We're saying it continues to cause families to seek options outside the neighborhood, and THAT is a huge waste, especially when the calendar has not proven to be an academic benefit and is more difficult and costly to administer. If you get rid of the calendar, you remove yet another barrier to neighborhood buy-in. The kids are here. Let them have a regular neighborhood school.

I am skeptical that a traditional calendar will suddenly make all those UMC families send their kids to Barcroft. The calendar is a legitimate reason for some; but it is an excuse for most who opt out. People still look at FRL rates and test scores.

Sure, it's not going to be a panacea. Families who have already committed to an option school aren't going to come back unless it has not been a positive experience. But there are families with kids yet to enter school and there are families who are at Barcroft now but don't love the calendar who may leave. It's just removing another negative, another mental barrier. People would get over the funny calendar if the school had high test scores and a great reputation. But it doesn't, so why not change what you can? Why wouldn't you want to do that? I still have not seen real evidence that there is some educational benefit to the modified calendar. But the cost of keeping the school open and busing 300 neighborhood kids to other schools is clear.

We'd be bussing 200 or more kids elsewhere anyway, because Barcroft doesn't have the capacity for 700-800 kids. If the calendar is only one barrier that MIGHT make a few more UMC families stay, I don't see a significant motivation to eliminate the calendar as a means to change demographics. It isn't going to make significantly more difference than what was happening several years ago when Barcroft was "on the rise" as referenced earlier in this topic. It started to see buy-in under the modified calendar but the change in leadership killed it - not because of the calendar. Perhaps if APS did more outreach and recruitment to make ED families realize the opportunities and advantages some of the option programs would offer their kids, they could get more of them to go to the option programs and create a better balance of economic demographics that way.

No, get rid of the calendar to SAVE MONEY that we really need for other things. Even if they continue to bus 200 kids who option out, that's 100 less kids on buses. If Barcroft is a neighborhood school, it needs to have a neighborhood school calendar. If APS wants to keep the calendar, they need to make it an option school.