Ann Arbor schools hope to fill 190 schools-of-choice openings for 2011-12 school year
Ann Arbor Public Schools officials expect to have 190 slots available for the district’s schools of choice program for the 2011-12 school year.
The Ann Arbor Board of Education will take the issue up next week after being briefed on the program by district administrators. Interim superintendent Robert Allen said the goal is to fill 180 spots, with an extra 10 spots for additional students who want to take advantage of the program.
There will be 60 spots available in kindergarten, 60 spots in first grade, five spots in the second, third, fourth and fifth grades and 50 spots in the sixth grade, Allen said.
Allen said the district was not able to fill the 150 spots the district opened up last year mainly because siblings of students who wanted to participate couldn’t get a spot. He said this year’s strategy should solve that problem.
“Late in the year when inquiries came in, there was still 150 interested,” he said. “The biggest impact was not allowing the siblings to participate, and that created the hardship that, ‘We’d love to but we don’t want to split siblings.’”
Last year, the district filled 79 of the 150 spots available, district spokesperson Liz Margolis said.
Lee Ann Dickinson Kelley, interim deputy superintendent for instruction, said applicants will pick four schools they would like to attend. A lottery will determine which student attends which school. In-district transfers will be done before schools of choice spots are filled, Dickinson Kelley said.
The lotteries are overseen by the district’s Child Accounting Office to ensure fairness, Dickinson Kelley said.
The Ann Arbor school board is scheduled to vote on the program at the March 30 meeting.
Margolis said district officials plan to advertise the program around the county, including in online ads on AnnArbor.com.
“We will do as much as we can,” she said.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Kboogy
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 1:41 p.m.
My daughter currently attends a charter school in the area and I'm seeing where she seems to be deficient in math skills and am looking to move her into the A2 school system. This opportunity is good for parents like me who would prefer to not have my child in the Ypsi public school system, which is where she would go based on our address. However, I'm concerned that the school board and government are no longer concerned with childrens education but more so how much money they can make off of them. I don't want to pull her out of a school that I have been pleased with to this point, and put her into another school hoping for a better education and she not receive it. Only time will tell.....
AMOC
Tue, Mar 29, 2011 : 1:23 a.m.
Kboogy - Enrolling your daughter at Kumon or one of the other tutoring services in the county will do more for her math skills with less cost and disruption to your family than getting her into an AAPS school. The Everyday Math and Connected Math curricula as used in AAPS are gold mines for math tutors in the area.
DagnyJ
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 12:04 p.m.
This has been going on for years, and has nothing to do with Snyder. But the AAPS has not implemented its choice strategy in a smart way and this is a new process. It's a good idea. Also smart to get elementary students who are positive cash flow given AAPS larger per pupil grant and spending. High school students are more expensive to educate. If you really want to save money, close Community High School and sell that valuable piece of property. It's a sacred cow that drains the district. So the rich white kids will have to go elsewhere. Big deal.
limmy
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 12:52 p.m.
Yes, but the poor black kids go to Clemente and Stone at a cost of $23,000 each.
Joe Hood
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 2:55 a.m.
@Ed No one really knows, other than the ideal taxation percentage is a point between 0% and 100% on the Laffer curve. Perhaps Michigan is a small aircraft in a flat spin and the hopeful changing of parameters (throttle, attitude, and weight distribution) might stop the spin. But which other parameters are we going to change? Taxation wise, we're in the rust belt where taxes are high, higher than many other places across the country (places we're competing against for companies that are still in Michigan as well as others that might come to Michigan). Of course we're commenting on the wrong post but I figured I reply anyway.
Edward R Murrow's Ghost
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 2:05 a.m.
@JoeHood Google "Laffer Curve" We as a nation and in the State of Michigan are way past the point where tax cuts lead to increased revenue (which, though unstated, is the underlying assumption of your post). There is a point where cutting taxes comes to harm the economy. We reached that point about a decade ago and is a very large reason why we are in the hole we are in. Good Night and Good Luck
Joe Hood
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 1:39 a.m.
They are going to need to add students if the teachers end up striking. Working parents need their kids in school and if the public schools are closed, those kids will have to go to school somewhere.
whale11
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 8:34 p.m.
It's too bad there has to be this competition for students, especially that poorer districts will be the ones losing students to Ann Arbor. It's just one more sign of our come-down from the glory days when Michigan's economy was in the top ten of the states. We were able to pay our teachers more than most other states, and the educational system was pretty good. Now Michigan is in the bottom ten states. Furthermore, Michigan is the only state that lost population in the Census. We can't live high on the hog like we used to. I'm retired and my kids are long gone--to four other states. I'm sorry for the Michiganders who have to suffer this tightening of our belts. I do have to say, when I visited China a couple of years ago, the cabbies and other people said the Buick was the best car, not the many Toyotas or Hundais I saw. Let's hope General Motors and other Michigan firms can sell a lot, make lots of profits, and help us in our dire straits.
DB Holden
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 4:46 p.m.
It is rather sad that the public schools chase children to come to their school. The current education system has reduced children to being "little ATM's" to gin up dollars to support an unsustainable cost structure. In the last 10 years just about every school district has built school monuments perhaps knowing that if you don't keep up with the Jones' those "little ATM's" will find their way to another district.
Dr. I. Emsayin
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 1:39 p.m.
The early elementary openings are a good idea to bring revenue into the school system, but AAPS should also look at expanding the resources at the high school level that keep students from dropping out. Having worked with high risk young people over the years, I see some issues. Cutting resources from the Options program, as planned, will increase the dropout rate. The WAY program is overpopulated, Clemente could hold more students than it takes, making Community High more viable for the traditional high school students by adding teaching sections and making sure that the program at Stone School is drawing the students who need it will keep or bring revenue into the district. Middle schools need to retain students who leave for private programs. This year I hear that Pioneer is slated to lose another batch of strong teachers to Skyline and places unknown. In the Skyline neighborhood people are saying that the favorite Pioneer teachers are forced out, to their good fortune, but poor Pioneer suffers in a number of ways for its losses. Lastly, each high school being on a different schedule does not help the high schools share resources like technical courses as easily as was once possible.
say it plain
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 2:30 a.m.
Totally agree with Limmy, and believe that if Community had to stand on its own the demand for it might come more in line with the number of available spots and the school could operate more as it should, offering more teaching sessions of the courses that make it truly 'alternative' .
limmy
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 1:40 a.m.
I don't think Clemente and Stone bring in money from more students. My recollection is that they cost about $23,000 per student while students only bring in $9000. As far as Community is concerned, it needs to stand on its own. CHS students should not be allowed to come to Pioneer for music, sports, and theater. Let the Pioneer students have the spots and let the CHS students have their own activities at their own school.
kermdd7
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 11:42 p.m.
@jns131, My strategy to get my kids into a good school is to buy a home within the attendance boundaries.
jns131
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 2:45 p.m.
I agree with this. Due to the fact that many charters stop at grade 8. Their best bet to fill the slots is to open up a lottery for 9th grade. We got in at 6 and plan to stay to graduation but we had to pull ours out of a charter to do so. Have to do what you gotta do to get into a good school.
Edward R Murrow's Ghost
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 1:32 p.m.
Ah, the feeding frenzy of a zero-sum game begins. Schools already short-changed by the cuts imposed on them by the Snyder budget, cuts that are self-inflicted as the school aid fund would permit more spending next year than this year, now fighting over the same students in order to get their per pupil funding. Welcome to Snyder's Michigan. A Social Darwinian paradise. I can see it now. The new state tourism motto: Pure Michigan: Where Darwin rules Problem: West Michigan won't much like that. Good Night and Good Luck
braggslaw
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 3:04 a.m.
Bless you joe
Joe Hood
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 1:20 a.m.
@Ed: Giving $1.8 billion to business? You meant to say letting them keep the $1.8 billion? Businesses create money, the problem your philosophy faces is not being able to tell them how to spend their money. You need them to bring more money into the economy, it is as simple as that. Without money, you have nothing. Not only do you have nothing but nobody has anything. This is the horse we're all riding right now through the stream (the other horse already lost).
Edward R Murrow's Ghost
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 9:22 p.m.
Not a dead ender. And not a lemming marching off the cliff with the governor, either. There are better ways to do this--that is, unless giving $1.8 billion to business while hurting the elderly and the poor, while watching Michigan's infratructure crumble, and while blaming dedicated public servants will "fix" Michigan. And it will. For the governor and for his buddies. While the lemmings march off the cliff. Good Night and Good Luck.
5c0++ H4d13y
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 9:08 p.m.
What nonsense. None of Snyder's bills have passed yet. The schools are operating under the laws and budget of the previous governor. With Michigan being the ONLY state to lose population since the last census combined with high unemployment there is no way the status quo can be maintained. I guess you can be a bitter dead ender if you want to though.
DonBee
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 1:02 p.m.
I suspect the lottery will first look at the grades with large numbers of openings - if there are siblings, they will get the spots in the grades with 5 open spots. Then if there are any spots left in the grades with small numbers of openings, they will lottery those. At least that is what I would assume. While this might help AAPS, it will hurt the surrounding school districts. The real answer is to consolidate districts. But the nay sayers will come up with 100 reasons why that cannot happen.
Steve Norton, MIPFS
Mon, Mar 28, 2011 : 5:39 a.m.
Sure, that could happen, but do we want it to? Even on an economic basis, several studies in the literature indicate that the "optimal" size of a district in terms of efficiency is somewhere around 3,000-5,000. We're at 16,500 roughly, and I think there are some 47,000 in the WISD overall. Most people way overestimate the savings you can get from eliminating staff in consolidation; you can't stretch people that thin. Already, many lower-priority admin tasks are permanently on the back burner because there are not enough people. The second question is political: how would Ann Arbor feel about sharing control of the district with Dexter, Saline and Ypsilanti? How would Manchester or Saline feel about a school board largely elected by Ann Arbor voters? And so on. Not as easy as it sounds.
Edward R Murrow's Ghost
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 : 1:23 p.m.
I agree. A2 should merge with Ypsi, Willow Run, and Lincoln ASAP. Good Night and Good Luck