A Note about Neighborhoods

There seems to be a little confusion about where all of our neighborhoods are in Southwest Austin, who is close to what and which neighborhood attends which school.

The new school being built is in the Meridian neighborhood, which is NOT a part of Circle C. The land has a complicated history that is tied up with the development of Circle C, but is not a Circle C neighborhood. We need to stop calling it "a Circle C school", and referring to three schools for Circle C residents. This school is being built primarily to relieve overcrowding at Clayton, and Clayton has become overcrowded because of the building that continues to occur in Southwest Austin.

No students will be added to Clayton's population during the upcoming boundary process. The lines that will be redrawn will address overcrowding at Clayton, Mills and Oak Hill-therefore, no students will be moved to any of those schools. The priority is to shrink these schools, while looking at currently underenrolled schools: Kiker, Patton, Boone and Sunset Valley.

Cowan Elementary School will also be involved in this process, since the outcome is likely to affect their lines as well. They are neither over or under enrolled, but their boundary lines are adjacent to several of the affected schools.

FUBTF Priorities

I had a question from one of our parents over the weekend.  They wanted to know if the district had confirmed that tracking and location would be considered priorities for the boundary task force.  So, I went and looked at the agenda for Tuesday's board meeting (September 29).

And sure enough, they have the priorities listed under the agenda.  The list includes tracking (aligning feeder patterns is the term they use) and location/proximity.

To find the document click on the link to the agenda below, then scroll down to item XII, E, Exihibit B.  You have to dig.
http://www.boardbook.org/apps/bbv2/public/detail_wrapper.cfm?MeetingKey=MjAwMzczODg%3D

Q&A from Boundary Meeting

We received cards with questions on them from the Boundary Info Meeting last Monday night.  I'm going to try and post them here.  I'll add to the list as time permits.

1. Can 5th grade be included in the new middle school?
That was considered as an option to relieve Clayton Elementary for one year, last year (which was in a similar position as we are this year.)  But no, this is not a long term solution that AISD would consider.

2.  How will we assess our boundary issues without knowing how other area schools are proceeding?
We have reached out to begin dialog with surrounding elementary schools, but they are just now getting started with the process, so we are ahead in planning and soliciting parent feedback.  The feedback through the survey will help the boundary reps determine what kind of plan the parents would accept.  Our boundaries will be redrawn in the next 6 months.  We will meet with all schools and their representatives starting October 13.

3.When redistricting occurs, which other elementary schools would likely absorb some Mills students?
Two likely elementaries that could absorb students are Kiker to our south and Patton to our north.  Both are underenrolled, but also have other schools on their borders that need relief (Oak Hill and Clayton.)  To our east are Cowan and Boone, which have been floated as schools that may take Mills students.  Boone's population tracks to different middle and high schools than our student population does.

How do these schools rank on TAKS scores?  How many are rated exemplary?
I'm taking this information directly from the AISD website, where TAKS scores and rankings are published for each campus.  Links are below
Kiker:  2008 - Exemplary http://www.austinisd.org/schools/details.phtml?id=075&opt=ratings
Patton: 2008 - Acceptable  http://www.austinisd.org/schools/details.phtml?id=092&opt=ratings
Cowan: 2008 - Recognized http://www.austinisd.org/schools/details.phtml?id=059&opt=ratings
Boone: 2008 - Recognized http://www.austinisd.org/schools/details.phtml?id=050&opt=ratings

Mrs. Butler requested that we point out that all the schools listed above are rated Exemplary for 2009.

What number of students do you feel is optimal when considering the realities of the available physical space?
Mrs. Butler has said she feels 900 students is optimal for Mills.

How about get rid of Pre-K?  Everyone else has to take care to find pre-k for younger children.  These classes take from lunchtimes and classrooms for special areas.
We considered this possibility last year, with a school-wide discussion last spring.  The children who attend Pre-K at Mills are offered free instruction based on their status: economically disadvantaged, English as second language or children of military servicemen and women.  We were able to get those students who wouldnt' attend Mills to be transfered back to their home campus, which reduced the number of Pre-K students on our campus.  Mrs. Butler has said she feels that moving Pre-K off campus would be a short term solution, because those children would come back to Mills for kindergarten the next year.  She also feels strongly about having them physically on campus to receive instruction.

Is there a way to ensure that all students at Mills belong here?
Yes, Mrs Butler required all current students in May 2009 to submit an electric bill along with their registration form in order to return to school in August. An electric bill must be in the name of the resident who lives at that address (unlike natural gas or water.)  Those who did not comply were not registered as returning students in the fall.  Although we don't have an official count, the CAC boundary committee estimates we lost about 30 students through this process.  However, it made little impact in our numbers overall (because we continue to grow).  I can try and get an official count from the front office.

When will Meridian be completed?
Meridian will open in August 2010.  It's under construction now.

Is Meridican considered a "neighborhood school" or will they be taking students from other areas?
I found out recently that the district has no policy on "neighborhood schools".  So I'm not sure it can be considered one.  The school is expected to draw students from Clayton, which is so overcrowded they had to send incoming kindergarten students (without siblings at the school) to Kiker this year.

Why was Meridian built to hold only 650 students?
Because that was the type of school approved in the bond election.  The district plans to build the school to accommodate a wing of new classrooms.  (Mills was not built with that option.)

Why is Kiker always underpopulated?
It historically hasn't been.  They were very overcrowded until Clayton was built and boundary lines were drawn about 4-5 years ago.  In fact, Kiker had a wing of classrooms added in recent years.

Is there a current plan to rezone Mills?
Not yet.  We might have maps in October.  Keep checking with the blog.

Will vertical tracking issues be resolved, if part of the Mills area tracked to another elementary school?  For example, if the NE portion of the Mills attendance zone tracks to Patton, will this area still track back to Bowie or Austin High?
It is my understand that boundaries for middle and high school will not be addressed in this boundary process.  So, for those neighborhoods that track to Small/Bowie, they would remain on that vertical track.  Moving children to Patton would not disturb those tracking patterns.  Moving children to Boone or Cowan would disturb those tracking patterns.

Mills CAC Meeting Thursday

Quick note to let you know that the Mills Campus Advisory Council will be meeting on October 1 at 3pm in the library.  All CAC meetings are open to the public.  We'll have a couple of items on the agenda that pertain to the boundary process.

1. We'll give a short presentation relating to the Parent Survey that was available last week.  Some of the results are interesting.
2. Joe Silva, Assistant Director of Planning Services with AISD has agreed to attend and answer questions we might have regarding the process.

We will be setting aside a predetermined amount of time for questions for Mr. Silva.

Transfers

Several comments have been made about the number of approved transfers to Mills, and we'd like to set the record straight concerning them. Our school has been frozen to transfers for a number of years, meaning that only priority transfers will be approved. When a transfer request is sent to Student Services, it is automatically denied, and must be reviewed and approved by the Associate Superintendent, Ariel Cloud. As a courtesy, she typically verifies these with Mrs. Butler.

Any school in the district that is frozen to transfers will never have zero transfers. There are policies adopted by AISD that will prevent that from ever being the case. Mills currently has eleven majority-to-minority transfers, which are required by district policy. The AISD website states, "Students may transfer from a school where the student's ethnic group is over 50 percent of the school's population to a school where the student's ethnic group is under 50 percent of the school's population. The purpose of the majority-to-minority transfer is to complement the District's student assignments and promote diversity throughout the District."

Another policy of the district is to allow children of teachers and staff to attend the school where their parent works. There are many reasons for this, and they all benefit the school. When a teacher shows confidence in a school by having their own children attend, you can count on the quality of students education to be heightened. We currently have sixteen children of teachers and two children of staff members attending Mills.

Yet another group of students who have traditionally been granted transfers district-wide are students who are in their final year of attendance at a campus, in our case 5th grade. When a new school opens, 5th graders are given the option to stay if they choose to finish their education at the school they've been attending. Likewise, they are given the option to stay if their family moves and they are entering 5th grade. This was the case a few years ago with students who were re-zoned to Clayton Elementary but chose to stay at Mills.

Students who are grandfathered also tend to have siblings, and those siblings are also granted priority transfers. It would not be workable for parents to have children at two different schools that kept the same hours. Some of Mills continuing transfers are the siblings of those 5th graders who chose to stay at Mills over Clayton, and they are now finishing up at Mills.

Finally, there are some students who have special needs who it would be harmful to move. We do want to keep the focus on what is best for students, and some students need to stay in a stable environment that they are familiar with and with staff who have been supporting them.

While we don't want to encourage any new transfers, we stand by the District's position in granting these limited, priority transfers. Eliminating all transfers would never be an option, and it would not solve our overcrowding problem.

A Note About Grandfathering/Parent Choice

There is an option on the survey that asks you to prioritize Grandfathering/Parent Choice. 

Let me explain a little about what the committee was thinking on this.  As Mrs. Butler explained last night, the current district policy on grandfathering is to allow incoming 5th graders to stay and finish their final year, and allow any siblings of those incoming 5th graders to also stay if they choose.

The committee wanted to know if parents wanted the option of allowing any children who already attend Mills to stay and finish (no siblings).  (Side note: this is an extreme long shot, as the district has never grandfathered more than 2 grades at an existing school.)

The numbers for a plan like this may or may not work out, but we wanted to get parents input on whether they would tolerate some overcrowding in favor of having a choice of their children to stay and finish at Mills.

This idea was not explained very well last night, but I did want to communicate what the boundary committee was thinking on this.

Mills Elementary Boundary Info Presentation

Thanks to all the parents who showed up at the meeting last night.  If you weren't able to make it, I've posted the presentation that Mrs. Butler gave last night.

Mills Elementary Boundary Info Presentation

View more presentations from Mills Rep.

Mrs. Butler will be giving the presentation again on Friday ta 8am in the Mills Library, during the principal's coffee.  Surveys will be available at that time also. 

A note about surveys.  I will leave some surveys in the front office for parents to fill out. Please return them by Friday at noon.  We will begin collating the results and plan to have a presentation on parent feedback at the next CAC meeting, October 1 at 3pm in the Mills Library.  The meeting is open to the public, although public comment is limited, because the CAC has other business to do that day as well.

Boundary Info Meeting, Monday, September 21

Just a reminder to please come to the Boundary Information Meeting that will be held in the Mills' Cafeteria at 6:30pm on Monday.

Three key points of the meeting:
- Explain overcrowding at Mills
- Explain the District's process of redrawing elementary school boundaries
- Survey Mills parents about what their priorities are.  These priorities will help the boundary representatives from Mills evaluate maps that are shown to them as the process gets underway.

The surveys will only be available at the meeting.  Parents will also have a chance to fill out surveys at the Principal's Coffee on Friday morning at 8am in the library.  The survey is difficult to fill out without first seeing the presentation on overcrowding at the school.

Nearly every family at Mills is potentially effected by the redrawing of boundaries, because the school's attendance zone is so small geographically, nearly everyone lives on or near a boundary line. 

"We got the point"

This morning, Paul Turner, Director of Facilities for AISD, contacted Lisa Chatham, Mills Boundary Representative, to say that the district understands where parents stand on the priorities of tracking and school proximity.  He's "crystal clear" on where we stand.

They are working on submitting a list of revised priorities to the Board of Trusttees this week, that should address our concerns.  We will keep you posted.

For now, I believe we can hold off on futher emails.  Thank you for those who chimed in. 

Something to think about:

I also talked with Robert Schneider (our board of trustees rep.) Tuesday, and he said that there is no AISD policy that supports neighborhood schools at any level. While the district has an established practice of supporting neighborhood schools at the elementary level, there is nothing to back that up other than a practice which may be changed at any time.

If, as a parent, you want neighborhood schools, (which Schneider says he supports,) we might need to push for a district policy which formally directs that action to take place.  And, you should know that this may mean that the district has to build more schools - and pass more bonds for construction - rather than "backfilling" existing schools, that have a falling population.

Something to think about as a taxpayer and a parent.

We plan to add this issue the parent survey we will pass out Monday night.  To fill out a parent survey, please come to the Boundary Info Meeting, Monday, September 21 at 6:30 in the cafeteria.

Last Night's School Board Meeting

So, last night, the AISD board of trustees had a work session, and among the topics was the process of how to redraw the boundaries.
Superintendent Carstarphen and Director of Facilities Paul Turner presented the following priorities for the upcoming elementary school boundary process.

Primary Priorities from AISD:
• Achieve capacity targets that ensure efficient operation of facilities
• Affect the fewest students possible
• Prevent multiple reassignment of students among schools by developing stable, long-term assignment plans
Secondary Priorities from AISD
• Minimize distance and travel time for students getting to and from school
• Align feeder patterns (AKA Tracking: attend the same schools as a large group from one geographic area.)

See the entire presentation here.

What came out of the meeting
Some members of the board of trustees had concerns about the list of priorities being different that what may be good for children and what parents would want to see. Dr. Carstarphen said she would consult with education staff with the district to get their input. She plans to resubmit the list of district priorities to the board of trustees on THURSDAY. The board will vote on these Tuesday, September 29, the same day AISD staff plans to hold their first community meeting at Clayton Elementary.

Here’s the question. Do you think the district should consider tracking and school proximity when setting priorities for boundaries? If so, please email aisd@millspta.org – and your email will be sent to the superintendent, members of the board of trustees and key staff that set the priorities. Want a form email to send? Click here.

Don’t forget – we’ll be gathering more input on priorities from Mills Parents next Monday, September 21. To fill out a parent survey, you have to be at the meeting!

Parent Meeting and Surveys

The Mills Campus Advisory Council is working hard to develop a parent survey – to determine what your priorities are for the upcoming boundary task force.


We’ll have an information meeting on Monday, September 21 at 6:30pm in the Mills Cafeteria.

The only way to get a survey is to attend this meeting. They won’t be going home in the Tuesday folders, so make sure your neighbors know, if they want to weigh in, they have to come to the meeting!

Twitter Account

Just set up a twitter account to send updates during Boundary Meetings.  We can also use it as a way to share the latest information -

If you want a real time feed, follow us @millsrep.

Boundary Process Begins

Calling All Mills Parents...

AISD is preparing to redraw elementary school boundaries, to accommodate the opening of the new southwest elementary school next Fall. Mills will be included in this boundary process. At Mills, Mrs. Butler, along with members of the Campus Advisory Council, believe it's essential to meet and determine the our community's priorities for this upcoming process.

To do that, we're holding a Boundary Information Meeting on Monday, September 21 at 6:30pm in the Mills cafeteria.

Why should you come to the meeting?

First, you'll find out about the overcrowding problem at Mills. You may not know, but we are the largest elementary school in the entire district with 1080 students. And there are consequences to being that large.

Plus, your opinion will be heard! We've prepared a survey to find out what values you want to see reflected in the boundary proposals. For example, do you value being able to walk to school? Do you value a phase-in plan that would allow existing students to continue going to Mills? Do you want to preserve existing tracking from elementary to middle and high school?

We will use this feedback to evaluate proposals from the District, so it's very important that you attend this meeting.

We're using this blog to begin a dialogue with parents, so check back often for updates.