Sunday, November 1, 2009

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1 comment:

Kathy Fine said...

I attended a community meeting at Dilworth School hosted by Dara Ware Allen, new school board director from District 2. There were four parents there as well as Ms. Ware Allen's' family and School Board Director Bill Isler.

After a brief introduction of her background, Ms. Ware Allen asked for concerns/questions.

One parent said that she was impressed with the district's communication regarding the new magnet process, but expressed concern that if a student is applying to CAPA as their first choice and another magnet as their second, if they do not get into CAPA, they are not entered into the lottery for another magnet (I think because the admission processes are different for CAPA than the other magnets, students in the past would apply to CAPA and get in while taking a slot at one of the other magnets from someone else).

Two parents expressed concerns over the facilities study's recommendation to close Fulton, citing increasing enrollment and test scores.

I asked three questions/concerns:

Will she advocate for the reconstitution of the Peabody and IB site selection committees in light of the recommendations of the facilities report? Will she advocate for the formation of the Schenley committee and ensure that the membership is open to stakeholder's with diverse viewpoints?

The facilities reports was somewhat misleading by putting renovation costs in "like new" dollars. Estimating costs to make a building usable for 30 or so years would have been more relevant.

Will she advocate for more transparency/openness from the administration? I related how the district deflected my request for information regarding Excellence for All goals to the districts lawyers. Bill Isler stated that the information that I was requesting was in the A+ report, however review of that document revealed that some of the information was in the report, but most was not.

Ms. Ware Allen Wrote everything down on a large pad without comment except to clarify what the parents were asking.