Reply to Alexandria City Public Schools new policy to possibly impact rising Kindergartners

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[quote=Anonymous]Reposting this from Old Town Moms listserv-If anyone has information -- please share!

Thanks!
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If you are considering Alexandria City Public Schools for your rising
Kindergarteners next year, I want to alert you to a new policy that could
affect you.

In a recent letter, ACPS states that registration will begin on April 9th,
but if your home school "exceeds capacity for Kindergarten prior to June
15; then all Kindergarten applications will enter a lottery for random
selection. Every student will be assigned a rank through the lottery.
Students will be placed in the home school until all slots are filled
according to rank. The remainder will be re-assigned to another nearby or
contiguous school."

While we can all appreciate the budget challenges facing ACPS, I am
concerned that this policy, which differs from years past, undermines
parents' ability to choose their child's school in two ways:

1. If the number of registrants at your home school exceeds the number of
spots, slots will be determined at random by ACPS, no matter when you
registered your child. It is no longer first-come, first served.

2. If your child is bumped from your home school, parents are no longer
able to select an alternate school. Rather, ACPS will place your child in a
school of its choosing.

My local school Maury, will definitely be affected because it is actually
reducing the kindergarten class from 4 to 3 for next school year, hence it
will most definitely reach over-enrollment. Once it receives too many
enrollments, ALL applicants enter the lottery (not the ones that were
registered before it reached enrollment cap) as I understand the new
policy. So you won't even know whether you get your home school until late
June. So if you try to hedge your bets, and apply to some privates as your
back-ups, most privates require a signed contract before June, and those
contracts are financially binding. And thinking of Maury as an example, I
can't imagine that if you got humped from Maury, that near by George Mason
or McArthur or Barrett would have room when Maury does not. Same for
Lyles-Crouch. So where is your child going to go? Jefferson Houston
continues to have problems, so what other school? Your child could end up
being assigned to a school quite a far distance from your home, away from
your child's friends and causing a commuting nightmare for you. And many
people buy a home specifically for the school in that district. With the
new policy, that will be a mute point.

I know this topic may generate some hot topic debate, but I felt it was too
important not to post. If you have any questions or concerns about the
policy, you can email the entire school board at the link below, or attend
the next School Board Meeting on Thursday, March 22 at 7:00pm in 2000 North
Beauregard Street to share your opinions in person.

Here is the link: http://www.acps.k12.va.us/board/contactsb.php
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