Volume 28 May 17, 2010
http://flowercityparents.org/forum
I try to be a booster for city schools. I think a lot of great things can happen, and are happening, in city schools. But the District doesn’t make it easy to sing its praises!
In the six years since the District’s school choice program was rolled out, it has been plagued by delays in getting placement results out. In some years, families have waited until August to find out where their children will be attending school. Last year, kindergarten and high school lottery results came out in the end of June (after parents were told they’d know by the end of May.) Many sixth graders did not find out which high school they had gotten into until after school was out for the summer.
Parents have brought this to the District’s attention year after year. In the fall, parents from the Flower City Parents Network met with District officials and were told that the District was committed to releasing placement results by April 30. Based on past experience, we were hesitant. Was that a definite date? Should we publicize it? Yes, the officials said, the date was hard and fast! Even the anticipated openings and closings of high schools wouldn’t delay it.
So here we are — May 17 — and there are no lottery results for kindergarten or high school. (Some high schools that handle their own admissions, such as SOTA and World of Inquiry, have sent out placements.)
Right now the district is saying the end of May. Forgive us if we do not hold our breath.
We understand that there are many significant changes going on in the District that affect schedules and deadlines and the whole placement process. But there are significant changes EVERY YEAR. Many of them - like the high school closings and openings - can be predicted, even if the specifics are late in coming. If the District can’t get the results out until June, then don’t tell parents they’re coming out in April!
The continual missed deadlines destroy any credibility the District has. For many parents of incoming kindergartners, it is their first contact with the District, and it is not a happy one. The delay makes it that much more likely that those with options such as charter schools or Catholic or other private schools will take the opportunity to leave the District. In many cases, they will never come back. As a parent wrote on the forum, “This is the behavior and attitude that causes those for sale signs to pop up.”
We fight hard to keep families in the District and to let people know there is excellence here to be found. It would be nice if we weren’t fighting the District itself!
Flower City Parents is on Twitter: @cityparents
From our latest posts on the forum:
On kindergarten lottery results:
Anyone heard anything yet?! I’m assuming no because our youngest in entering kindergarten next year and we haven’t received the official letter yet. He is guaranteed a spot given sibling preference, neighborhood school etc. I’m guessing those that don’t know their child’s placement until the lottery is run are beginning to get impatient. The deadline for registering was a month ago.
We are hoping to host a “Welcome to School #12″ for all incoming kindergartners and their families before the end of the year. Without knowing when families will be notified, we’re afraid to get it on the calendar. If we wait too long we won’t get it on the calendar! To do a welcome event right it takes some planning. Staff need to be available. We’re hoping to have transportation attend too. Then once all of the planning on our end is done, it takes awhile to get mailings out via central office. That can’t be overlooked. How many of us have been notified of an event AFTER it has taken place or the day before….. That would be a horrible way to welcome a new family….
I’m sure the office of student placement is going crazy with all of the secondary changes being rolled out now for next year. Now that I’ve mentioned secondary, has anyone with kids moving on to 7th grade heard anything? I heard rumors that those going to SOTA were notified…any others??
Sigh……this is no way to keep the “For Sale” signs away……..
On the May 4 forum with Mayor Duffy:
It started out as frustrating same old same old - grad rate unacceptable blah blah blah, with the added frustration that questions were to be submitted written on cards. Finally a woman stood up and when recognized, pushed the question on the format - it was NOT a dialogue as advertised. After applause to that, the Madame Moderator more or less alternated between written and viva voce questions, with great diplomacy.
Near the end of the allotted time, Bishop Tillman, and another gentleman, “The Man in the White Shirt”, had remarks that seemed to… I can’t exactly say strike the Mayor, but they coalesced many of the previous remarks: that the Leaders should sit in the audience and the Parents and Teachers should be up front talking about what they see needs to happen, so that there is input from all on the solutions. And Duffy seemed surprisingly receptive - I believe he did say ‘wipe the slate clean’, and at least two people videotaped the evening, though I don’t know who they are.
I did leave with the greatest sense so far of a new willingness on the Mayors part to work WITH instead of talk AT, and to plan NOW, instead of always fobbing us off with ” have to wait and see what the legislation looks like”, and that “wipe the slate clean” — To ME — sounded like he is closer to an attitude of “whatever will incite the needed major change and improvement to the schools and outcomes” ( those quote marks are meant to show paraphrase of concept, they are NOT a direct quote from Duffy)
On parent training on understanding the budget:
Now that the budget whirlwind is done, I want to share an idea I had during the process. What if the Office of Parent Engagement held a session(s) for parents to help them read and understand the proposed budget and the impact on their school and how to advocate for change. Maybe hold it at a school’s computer lab so everyone could be on-line looking at the document. There could be information about who your board rep is and how to contact them as well as name and contact info for the appropriate “powers that be” that may be able to influence the budget. Clarify what is a local principal’s choice vs. district choice. It’s great that the budget is online, but it is certainly a very intimidating document. The session could be facilitated by both OPE staff and experienced parent advocates sharing what has worked for them.
What do you think?
On the mayoral control legislation from Albany:
My immediate thoughts on the parental-input piece is that it’s still a little weak.
The mayor appoints the main council. The specifics are lacking when it comes to the question of how accountable this council is when it comes to parental concerns — people can only be dismissed from it “for good cause.” Would a pattern of not being responsive count as good cause? Say, responding to specific concerns with form letters? Ignoring real issues, such as safety concerns or a lack of textbooks, when such issues have been brought to members by the parents? (Would the meetings be open to parents as current school-board meetings are? Would they attract the same amount of media and public attention — parents can certainly get the current school board to focus by showing up at school board meetings. If the new advisory board has powers that are more diluted, would parents who showed up to talk to the board at its meeting just be talking to an empty and uninterested room?)
And, as for the community schools advisory councils, I am sort of unclear as to how much power they would actually have. If they pan the superintendent, does he or she get fired? If public hearings about school closings uncover nothing but opposition to those school closings, will the school remain open? (In which case, one of the main benefits of mayoral control — the ability to close failing schools — will be lost, as I cannot imagine that very many people would ever show up to actually support a proposed school closing; people who are nonplused by a particular school simply opt for sending their kids elsewhere rather than going to meetings and demanding that those schools be closed. For example, I can’t imagine sending my child to any of the high schools currently located in the Franklin building, but I don’t show up at school board meetings to support their closure.)
My immediate hunch is that there are too many councils — that disseminating duties and responsibilities across four types of councils instead of concentrating them in one just creates further fragmentation and a lack of public focus. But I will certainly be interested in seeing the details and hearing more about how all this will work. My immediate hunch could certainly be wrong.
Plus … Benches on Parade by city students, national recognition for Wilson Foundation, teacher evaluations, lead testing for pre-schoolers … and much more!
Question/Poll of the Week: How do YOU use the FCPN forum?
In our first year of existence, Flower City Parents Network has attracted lots of readers. We sometimes struggle, though, to keep the forum from becoming a one-way posting board. We’d love your thoughts on what keeps you from posting, or - if you do post - what might encourage you to post more. If it’s just the time pressures of life, we certainly understand that! But if there’s something else that’s keeping you from joining the discussion — technical problems or anything else — please help us out by letting us know.
Come answer our poll! (You do have to be logged on to answer.) If you REALLY don’t want to post, or even answer the poll, we’d love it if you’d shoot us an email — info@flowercityparents.org — or private message to let us know your thoughts.
Feel free to answer previous questions of the week, too!
From our calendar:
Tuesday, May 25
School Board Meeting
6 p.m.
3rd floor conference room, Central Office, 131 W. Broad St.
Parent’s & Student’s Perspective on Mayoral Control
4:30-7:30 p.m.
Wilson Foundation Academy, 200 Genesee Street
Hosted by the Student Government Association of Wilson Foundation Academy
Saturday, June 5
Annual Title I Parent Conference - Create A Masterpiece: From Cradle to College
9:30am – 3:00pm (Sign-in & Continental Breakfast at 8:30)
Radisson Hotel Riverside, 120 East Main Street
Final Thoughts
In case anyone is wondering what happened with our questions for Mayor Duffy …
We sent a list of questions to the mayor on March 9, following up with a series of emails and phone calls to his aides and secretary, which — an entire month later — resulted in our first response: apologetic phone calls from one of the mayor’s aides and then the mayor himself. In that phone call, Mayor Duffy suggested meeting with Flower City Parents in person to hear our thoughts and answer questions.
We agreed and, as requested, followed up with potential dates and a meeting location. And then … nothing. Once again we made half a dozen phone calls and emails to the mayor and his secretary, with No. Response. Whatsoever. Not even a “We’re sorry, the mayor doesn’t have time right now.” Nothing.
Since we first contacted Mayor Duffy, there have finally been some public forums with the mayor participating. And we certainly understand that the mayor is extremely busy. Still, with responsiveness to parents being a key issue in cities with mayoral control, it is disappointing. In our experience, the response to calling the city’s 311 help line with problems like “There’s a hole in my garbage can” is excellent. We can only hope that if the mayor takes over the schools, those are the people put in charge of responding to parents.
Thanks - as always - for your support.
Sincerely,