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Parents seek to expand North End school
By adamg on Sat, 03/26/2011 - 1:09pm
NorthEndWaterfront.com posts a copy of a petition from parents at the Eliot School asking the city to expand what is the downtown area's only public elementary school:
The recent Boston Public School lottery assignments left many of our families with no placements in the system. These displaced North End families are now facing very difficult decisions regarding their ability to raise their children here.
We are proposing to expand the Eliot School so it can accommodate the growing families of the North End as well as the surrounding neighborhoods it already serves - West End, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, East Boston, etc. Expanding the Eliot would not only benefit the North End families, but also families all over the city who have hopes to send their children to the Eliot. We sincerely request that the expansion be completed for the 2011-2012 school year.
Meanwhile, Open Media Boston posts a video of BPS students protesting planned school closures and consolidations.
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Comments
Tax monies should fund strip clubs
Those with children should move to the suburbs and leave the cities for responsible adults.
Bah humbug.
Tax monies should strip clubs
But only if they are gay! Diversity!
Wait...
"The recent Boston Public School lottery assignments left many of our families with no placements in the system."
K0 (3 years old by Sept 1) and K1 (4 years old by Sept 1) are done by lottery. No one is guaranteed a seat. Just like in most every other city, families in general aren't entitled to free preschool.
If the student is registering for K2 (5 years old by Sept 1), then they absolutely will get a placement in the system. It just might not be at their preferred school, because there are a limited number of seats.
Not sure exactly what this person is talking about.
are you dense
There's no other elementary schools in the neighborhood
No, she's not dense, Mr. Snarky-pants...
However, Eeka is (quite understandably) taking at face value the rhetoric from the BPS that all K2 or older children are guaranteed seats - not in their immediate neighborhood, mind you, just in the system at large. In practice, there have been years where dozens of families find their children wait-listed at every school which they've listed - even when they'd put down a half dozen choices (not likely for North End families).
I personally know three families with children the same age as my fifth grader, whose children were only seated well after the beginning of the school year. Now the silver lining is that each of those families ended up being happy with the schools their children finally attended, and that this sort of thing has become less common in the last several years, with the new assignment algorithms that have been adopted (well, i believe only partially adopted, but that's a math-nerd rant for another day).
Having said all that, I think it's pretty clear when you look at the map of BPS schools that there is a huge gap in coverage - centered, ironically enough, on the headquarters of the BPS at Court street, which is in a nearly mile-wide 'desert' in the middle of downtown with no schools at all. So I don't doubt that a lot of parents in the North End find themselves in this sort of limbo.
Put a school in Menino
Put a school in Menino Memorial Pit in DTX. Lots of kids are loitering on the sidewalks there anyway.
The post said
"the system," not "the neighborhood." I don't actually believe that there are children whose families provided proof of residency and birth date that made them eligible for K2, yet were denied seats in "the system." I've had several families this year in various neighborhoods who didn't get any of the schools they picked, but everyone does get assigned to a school. In most places, you don't get to express a choice of school at all if you're a regular-ed student.
And as far as the "desert," we've had this discussion before on here. Your or my feelings about the benefits of neighborhood schools aside, there are other places in Mattapan, Lower Mills, Hyde Park, Roslindale, Brighton, and West Roxbury where people are just as far from an elementary school as someone who is halfway between the Eliot and the Quincy. These areas also have a lot more school-aged children. The downtown area is hardly unique in this regard.
I'm sorry you don't believe
I'm sorry you don't believe it eeka, but it is the truth that I personally know children the same age as my daughter who were eligible and as of the first day of school - and for several weeks afterwards - had not recieved an assignment. I have read accounts online from families of other children who have had the same experience - and although in these cases I can't not personally vouch for the trustworthiness of the people involved, I have no reason to doubt them, as they were all quite anxious to have their children start at a BPS school.
I also understand your point about relative distances between schools, and to some extent agree - but I will also point out that there is a lot more 'psychological' distance between, for example, the North End and the Back Bay then between Forest Hills and Fallon Field.
same old stupidity on schools
There's a school lots of parents wants to send their kids to.
There are schools that few parents want to send their kids to.
Close the undersubscribed one and expand the Eliot, or open an Eliot #2 down the street. What's wrong with giving parents what they want?
Cost
It costs a lot more to expand and renovate a school - particularly one that doesn't meet the standards for minimum available land - than it does to keep existing schools open.
Right now, the BPS have more
Right now, the BPS have more seats than are needed and less money than is needed. Therefore, it seeems unrealistic to request an expansion of the Eliot.
That's too simplistic.
We want to encourage increased enrollment in the BPS. But funds are short. So the folks at Court Street need to accurately assess where resources are most needed. The new weighted-student funding method they're using this year to figure out individual school budgets is an example. Some schools are getting less, but some are getting more. Overall, the idea is to make fair and effective use of the dollars they have.
The same is true for seats. Closing schools which are either not serving enough students, or not serving the ones they have well enough, is depressing but necessary. But just as with budget dollars, there will be schools, students and neighborhoods for which there are not currently enough seats to satisfy demand.
I'm not saying that the folks in the North End should get the expansion they want, but in the end, property is fungible - family and community engagement is not.
Keep the families in the city
Expanding the Eliot will benefit the children in downtown Boston, including the North End, West End, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, etc. and also many bused children. We want these neighborhoods to continue to grow and thrive with wonderful Boston families. This is an immediate and long-term need for these growing neighborhoods who have families longing to stay in this great city. The schools they have closed are schools that people do not want to send their kids to - it's wasting money having open seats. Why not expand a school that has a great principal and community supporting it. This school is HIGH in demand and has LONG waiting list. If families are forced to send their kids across the city to an under-proforming school they are going to want to move to the burbs. By the way, if you do not get into some of these good schools in K1 - you most likely will not have a chance to get into the school for K2, 1st grade,, etc. - And then forced to pay for private school, move to the burbs, or send your child to a crappy BPS.