Just an FYI: The City Schools of Decatur School Board is scheduled to voted on the Superintendent’s recommendation of Map 9 at this evening’s board meeting, which begins at 6:30p at Westchester. Here’s the agenda.
The public comment portion of the meeting will be the public’s final chance to speak out about the K-3 redistricting plan.
h/t: InDecatur
Sharron
Daydreamer
J_T
Rick Julian
smalltowngal
The Walrus
Kimberly Rhodes
Sharron
DEM
The Walrus
AMB
Curious
At Home in Decatur
Mic
Decatur Metro
Hope it works out for Willow Lane, Pensdale, Eastland, and the “Willow Lane Walking Gang”. Or that they at least feel satisfied with whatever accomodations or flexibility are offered.
Thanks for the kind thoughts, Karass. We get to stay at Clairemont! I really appreciate the process the staff and Board have gone through and the hard work that has gone into trying to get this right.
Wow—great news! Did they modify Map 9 a little or do you mean that your rising third grader can stay?
Well done Willowmom and gang! I echo your kudos to the School Board, Dr. Edwards and staff in working hard to listen and respond to input from the community throughout this redistricting process. Good job all around!
Map 9 was modified so that Willow students will attend clairemont. That, combined with rising 3rd grade waiver requests, will most likely require a trailer to stay at winnona and oakhurst.
I can understand why rising 3rd grade waiver requests would require a trailer at Winnona and Oakhurst. But that should be a one-year only situation, right? I would imagine that those school communities will be accepting so that those 3rd graders can finish up at the school they’ve been attending for 3 years.
But why does keeping Willow/Pensdale/Eastland at Clairemont contribute to having a trailer at Winnona and Oakhurst? I would think that, if anything, it would contribute a trailer to Clairemont, not to anywhere else.
I would expect that the trailers required by third grade waiver requests would be for third graders? Seems unfair to put younger kids in trailers to accommodate favors to third graders.
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I’ll be surprised if there’s enough waivers in any one school to fill a whole trailer. The waiver kids probably just tip the numbers into a trailer but I think 3rd graders are the best candidates for trailers anyway. My kids keep trying for trailers and never get them. Maybe in college? Or maybe they’ll become teachers and win favor by volunteering to be ones who teach in them?
Does the lack of posts this morning indicate that there’s no new surprises or unintended consequences? Can’t wait to see the final, final, final map posted. Map 9biiiAIV! This has truly been a consensus process with lots of time for all the major kinks to get worked out and some give and take by all. I hope the entire process–map options, revised options, community comments on-line and in public meetings, presentations, website, etc., are all chronicled and saved as a model for the future. In Year 20XX, when the next reconfiguration occurs, even if there’s a new Board and/or new Superintendent that don’t personally remember what happened in 2010, folks can pull out the 2010 model as one that worked and should be followed again.
Kudos seconded.
Frankly, I think no kid should have to be in a trailer in order to accommodate some other kid’s parents desire for a waiver. There were no waivers in the last reconfiguration (and all the third graders did just fine), so I don’t understand why there would be waivers this time around particularly if it means another kid has to be in a trailer as a result.
Try another 20 kids…
There WERE waivers last time although I’m not sure the term waiver was used. There were former Westchester third-graders zoned to Clairemont whose families chose for them to go to Oakhurst for their one year before Glennwood 4/5. There were former Fifth Avenue families going to Clairemont instead of Winnona Park or Oakhurst. I beleive those waivers were based on minority to majority transfer rules. Then there were a bunch of families who moved during the year and got waivers. I never really understood who qualified for what kind of flexibility but it occurred. It was just not as transparent.
Wow! There must be a lot of 3rd grade waiver requests!
If the only modification to Map 9 is to allow W/P/E to remain at Clairemont there should be no change in the previous Map 9 numbers for Oakhurst and Winnona. The change should only occur at Glennwood. Right?
Learning. Cottages.
As a NOLA girl, I must say I love your “name”.
Just out of curiousity: Was there any public comment? Or did W/P/E folks already know that Map 9 would be tweaked to put them back at Clairemont? Did Board members make any comments? Inquiring minds want to know and CSD meetings aren’t on government cable yet. Maybe Andrea Berry filmed?
There was public comment. Willowmom spoke on behalf of many people in the neighborhood (and very well, I might add) and another gentleman also spoke to support the change. It was a very civil discourse and Dr. Edwards mentioned that she had driven the route between Willow and Clairemont Elementary and Willow and the future Glennwood Elementary and she could see that it was a big difference. As a result, she recommended the board either adopt an altered version of Map 9 that would keep the neighborhood at Clairemont or call it Map 10. She also asked Clairemont Principal Erin Wheeler whether she could accomodate the change at the school and Ms. Wheeler said she could. In addition, a woman from Pine Lakes (?not sure I got that right) along Scott Blvd. expressed her appreciation to the board for being responsive when that community indicated that they would rather stay with Oakhurst than be rezoned.
The biggest factor working in favor of keeping the Willow/Pensdale/Eastland neighborhood at Clairemont was that using a class size of 20, adding those kids back into Clairemont didn’t add any additional classrooms from the 15 projected and the impact will be lessened every successive year as the neighborhood ages out of the elementary schools. (However, as Thomas Van Soelen mentioned, we might keep a trailer to accomodate 3rd graders who elect to stay.) That said, I realize that you can’t guarantee that new families with younger children won’t move in, but we can only go with what we know.
The board did have comments and they were (as far as my faulty memory serves) supportive of the proposal prior to the vote and the vote was unanimous.
I’d like to thank Bruce Roaden, Thomas Van Soelen and Dr. Edwards for being so receptive to feedback and really trying to do the best thing for the school system and for children. Also, the board deserves recognition for working with so many diverse groups and trying to accomodate as many requests as possible.
This positive experience illustrates why we love Decatur (trust me, this wouldn’t have been possible in DeKalb County Schools) and shows how the community can work together in a civil manner when we assume positive intent rather than set up an us versus them mentality.
Thnx re Board report. You probably mean Pinetree off of Scott. Ironic that Pinetree,which once fought to stay at Westchester, now is glad to stay at Oakhurst. Shows how good Oakhurst has always been. Ms. Kuebler told us that way back when!
Just learned that parts of Willow/Pensdale/Eastland used to attend Westchester. So those parts would have been rezoned twice in a row, from Westchester to Clairemont to Glennwood. Nice that was prevented.
Decatur: A city of homes, schools, places of worship, and positive intent!