Lafayette--adding new classes now in anticipation of the renovation being completed in Aug 2016?

Anonymous
Lafayette's current enrollment is 700. I read the new building will have capacity of 800. Are they adding classes now in anticipation of the aug 2016 opening of the new building? If yes, in which grades are they adding?

Yes, this is a lottery-fueled question. Hopeful....
Anonymous
They added one pre-K class, going from 80 spots in four classes to 100 in five. Their boundary also has grown by 50 families this year with expansion into Murch's territory. Not many of those families came over, but chose to stay at Murch. The expectation is that now that Lafayette is going to have a beautiful new building and Murch is going to be under construction the next two years, many of those families will start to come over. Also, there's an expectation that with the nice new building some families that previously went private may send their kids to Lafayette. (Particularly at the K level next year.) So all those factors combined, you could grow to 800 pretty quickly.
Anonymous
The principal told us that they are not taking any OOB families through the lottery in grades K and up right now. They want to see how in boundary enrollment looks since, as the PP said, it could be quite a bit higher than normal (K is already expecting 6 classes, from current PK families plus new IB families). They might accept OOB families over the summer, depending on what happens.

But there will be 20 additional PK slots. That could create OOB spaces if IB interest isn't as great as people think.
Anonymous
I live IB and am WL at Lafayette for PK4
Anonymous
Also WL for PK at Lafayette. Also live in bounds. Argh!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I live IB and am WL at Lafayette for PK4


How far? I would be willing to be you will get in. Most IB kids got in when it was four classes -- there is a lot of movement because so many decide to stay in their private preschool.
Anonymous
Any sense of how far down the waitlist they got last year?
Anonymous
It definitely will move! Always parents that decide last min to keep their kid in private pre-school one more year.
Anonymous
It seems nutty to build a bigger school building for OOB. Aren't lottery spaces suppose to fill existing spaces that can't be filled by IB??
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:It seems nutty to build a bigger school building for OOB. Aren't lottery spaces suppose to fill existing spaces that can't be filled by IB??


WOTP for all. 10% set asides.
Anonymous
Will Lafayette stay at deal? How can they just add 20 kids per grade and but see the downstream impact?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Will Lafayette stay at deal? How can they just add 20 kids per grade and but see the downstream impact?


Yes. And they are also adding 100 students to Murch.
Anonymous
What?! Why are they adding students? This OOB business needs to stop. It does not allow for local population growth, just stuffs schools to the gills.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:What?! Why are they adding students? This OOB business needs to stop. It does not allow for local population growth, just stuffs schools to the gills.


Not OOB. They are building Murch for 100 more students than currently enrolled and say it is based on IB projections (so increased capacity will begin in 2018-19). Murch has nearly doubled in size, increasing by an average of about 50 IB families per year over the last 8 years and it shows no sign of stopping -- especially since all of that happened while the school was in a decrepit building with 50% of the students now in trailers. When the new building opens, IB will continue to increase, just like it has everywhere else in the area.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:It seems nutty to build a bigger school building for OOB. Aren't lottery spaces suppose to fill existing spaces that can't be filled by IB??


The reno isn't to make it bigger for OOB. It's sorely needed and a long time overdue. The #800 is for expected IB expansion. If spaces aren't filled IB, then they will be OOB, but that is far from the reason for the renovation.
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