The East task force met last night (December 8). Can anyone provide an update?
3 thoughts on “East Task Force Action?”
The East Task Force met for about 3 1/2 hours on Thursday night. We narrowed down the options to 4 basic concepts:
1) Find space in an East area school for MSCR
2) Find space in an East area school for the Affiliated Alternative programs
3) Explore pairing of isthmus schools – specifically Lapham/Emerson and Lowell/Marquette
4) Explore boundary changes on the northside, to include reuniting of the Packers kids at one school
We removed the idea of taking kids in from the west attendance area. According to what we were told, there is little support for that from the West/Memorial task force so there didn’t seem to be much point in keeping it on the table.
We decided that we would recommend that the Board consider boundary changes from the LaFollette to the East area for currently undeveloped land on the eastside at the point at which it is platted and slated for development. There are some parcels that are not planned to be developed for a few years yet that might make sense to move to the East attendance area if Kurt’s projections for the LaFollette area are correct.
We also talked about changing the middle school feeder patterns to move more kids into O’Keeffe from Sherman, in order to better balance the poverty rates among the middle schools and to increase the % capacity at O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe is the largest middle school in the East attendance area and is significantly under capacity (47%). Once we finalize our recommendations for the elementary schools regarding potential pairing or boundary changes, we’ll include corresponding recommendations for the middle schools.
That was pretty much what we accomplished on 12/8. Next meeting is Thursday, 12/22. That is supposed to be our last meeting, but I anticipate that the task force will request to have an additional meeting or two to finalize recommendations.
Jill,
Thanks for the update. What do the elementary pairings accomplish? Better income balance? Reduction of overcrowding?
The pairings would accomplish better income balance and, depending on the configuration, would free up space to accommodate MSCR and the Affiliated Alternative programs. When we voted to remove school closings from our options, we did so with the intent of working to figure out another way to accommodate MSCR and the Affiliated Alternatives within vacant space in our East area buildings.
The East Task Force met for about 3 1/2 hours on Thursday night. We narrowed down the options to 4 basic concepts:
1) Find space in an East area school for MSCR
2) Find space in an East area school for the Affiliated Alternative programs
3) Explore pairing of isthmus schools – specifically Lapham/Emerson and Lowell/Marquette
4) Explore boundary changes on the northside, to include reuniting of the Packers kids at one school
We removed the idea of taking kids in from the west attendance area. According to what we were told, there is little support for that from the West/Memorial task force so there didn’t seem to be much point in keeping it on the table.
We decided that we would recommend that the Board consider boundary changes from the LaFollette to the East area for currently undeveloped land on the eastside at the point at which it is platted and slated for development. There are some parcels that are not planned to be developed for a few years yet that might make sense to move to the East attendance area if Kurt’s projections for the LaFollette area are correct.
We also talked about changing the middle school feeder patterns to move more kids into O’Keeffe from Sherman, in order to better balance the poverty rates among the middle schools and to increase the % capacity at O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe is the largest middle school in the East attendance area and is significantly under capacity (47%). Once we finalize our recommendations for the elementary schools regarding potential pairing or boundary changes, we’ll include corresponding recommendations for the middle schools.
That was pretty much what we accomplished on 12/8. Next meeting is Thursday, 12/22. That is supposed to be our last meeting, but I anticipate that the task force will request to have an additional meeting or two to finalize recommendations.
Jill,
Thanks for the update. What do the elementary pairings accomplish? Better income balance? Reduction of overcrowding?
The pairings would accomplish better income balance and, depending on the configuration, would free up space to accommodate MSCR and the Affiliated Alternative programs. When we voted to remove school closings from our options, we did so with the intent of working to figure out another way to accommodate MSCR and the Affiliated Alternatives within vacant space in our East area buildings.