Tracking, also called "Feeder Patterns": After reading some of the comments, I wanted to clarify what tracking or feeder patters are. Tracking refers to the movement of a group of students from elementary, to middle to high school. Maintaining tracking does not mean that students would not be moved from Mills. It refers to moving students to schools that share the same middle and high schools as Mills does. For example, Kiker and Clayton also "track" to Gorzycki Middle School and Bowie HS, as does 1/2 of Mills. Patton also tracks to Small Middle and Bowie HS, as does the other 1/2 of Mills.
Many of you have been asking what you can do to assist in the boundary process. Lisa and I have crafted a petition that you can choose to sign, if you agree with it.
You can find the petition and sign it online: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/millstracking
Please sign by Monday, November 2. We'd like to have these in hand by the next boundary meeting.
Here's the text of the petition:
AISD is opening a new SW Elementary school and adjusting surrounding schools that are overcrowded, including Mills, Clayton and Oak Hill elementaries. Members of the Boundary Task Force are charged with the priority of: “achieving capacity targets that ensure efficient operation of facilities.”
The schools that are under capacity include Boone and Sunset Valley elementaries. These elementary schools have feeder patterns that are inconsistent with the feeder patterns at Mills.
For example, Mills elementary currently sends students to Small Middle School and Gorzycki Middle School, then all students feed into Bowie High School. Currently, Boone and Sunset Valley track students to Covington Middle School and Crockett High School. Changes in the current elementary school boundaries that involve Boone or Sunset Valley would disrupt these current feeder patterns and potentially separate a group of students from the elementary school peers when entering middle and high school.
Do you oppose moving students into schools that disrupt current feeder patterns?
We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens who urge our Boundary Task Force to oppose disrupting feeder patterns for children who live in the Mills Elementary attendance zone.
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I'm curious. One of the things I never hear anyone talk about is the fact that Kiker is under capacity. (Such as in the above post) I live in VOWO, and Kiker is an excellent school that is actually closer to my house than Boone, yet the only school being discussed is Boone for my kids to go to. To me, there are two other options. Either open up Kiker as a potential school for VOWO kids, or, take some of the Circle C children who are currently going to Mills and send them to Kiker instead, leaving Mills capacity for those just north of the boundary of Circle C. That way, Circle C gets to stay within their feeder patterns (Gorzycki Middle School, Bowie) and VOWO people get to stay in their feeder pattern (Mills, Small, Bowie). If I wanted to get conspiratorial, it looks like from my perspective Circle C parents want to keep their kids at Mills/ Gorzycki at any cost, when they have an exceptional school (Kiker) that their kids could attend. Probably, should attend. Whereas, VOWO parents are being locked out of Kiker AND Mills, and sent all the way over east to Boone just so Circle C lives aren't inconvenienced. What am I missing here? Keep al the Circle C kids together and keep all the VOWO kids together, and let all of them attend great schools. If you're going to tell me that Boone needs to be rescued, then first start talking about new teachers, new principal, and a complete overhaul of the school. Also, talk about forcing children from some very upscale areas (some of the gated communities within Circle C for instance) to attend Boone as well, which would make the school truly diverse. Sorry for the rant.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that thanks for all you're doing with the blog and keeping us up to date. I'll sign the petition!
ReplyDeleteMat,
ReplyDeleteI understand your frustration. Thanks for your honesty.
We are looking at Circle C neighborhoods to move to Kiker. We've already begun talking to Kiker about how many children might be moved to their school. They are doing some leg work for us to find out.
You may or may not know that Clayton was so overcrowded that they had to send 110 of their kindergarten students to Kiker this school year. As the boundaries get reshuffled, those kinders may attend other elementaries. But there is a chance some might stay at Kiker. It's a fluid situation at the moment.
I can tell you honestly, that we are looking at every border of Mills for relief. It's not just your neighborhood. We hope all Mills parents realize that we're in this together - we have to find a workable solution together and that some children are going to have to move to other schools.
Thanks for signing the petition - we think it's possible to find appropriate relief for Mills without violating tracking/feeder patterns.
Thanks Michelle. Really appreciate it, and what you're doing here. One last thing: Patton is under capacity, and feeds into Small then Bowie. Our middle school is already Small. So why not also consider sending VOWO people to Patton? This scenario also makes way more sense than Boone.I guess this is exactly what the petition is all about. Boone just makes little sense for us over here to me, when Mills is close by, and Patton and Kiker are both about the same distance away as Boone. (maybe less). The only argument that I've heard that addresses this is, "Boone needs parents from VOWO to make it a better school," to which I say, fix the school first. I think the school will have a greater impact on our K-5th grade kids than a few parents could have on the school... at least in the first several years.
ReplyDeleteYes, we have good friends whose kids are going to Kiker this year (they live in Alta Mira in Circle C.) They had really wanted to go to Clayton but Kiker is a great school, and they recognize that either choice is good for them. One friend from Circle C mentioned "I heard ya'll might have to go to Boone!" and made sort of a sad face. I think they're ambivalent about where they end up next year, but they are definitely glad it's not Boone.
Mat,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I don't want anyone to think we are throwing Boone "under the bus". It's a fine school that has dedicated, experienced teachers and parents who care about their school community, just as we care about Mills.
I haven't heard anyone say that Boone needs Mills kids to make it better. They would like to increase their enrollment in order to make full use of their facilities. As an AISD taxpayer, I'm sure you appreciate what the district is trying to do.
Our goal with the petition is to make sure the district and the task force understands that our parents are opposed to interupting the established tracking pattern of our surrounding neighborhoods. Since that is also a priority of the task force, we hope they value this viewpoint.
Mat,
ReplyDeleteWell said.... I couldn't agree more.
Michelle,
What reason would any of those kinders stay at Kiker?
Chad,
ReplyDeleteI'm hearing from a couple of sources - one at Kiker, another, a Clayton kinder parent who's attending Kiker this year - that the former superintendent offered to the kinder families that they could stay at Kiker for the duration of their elementary school experience, if they chose to do so.
I don't know how many would take them up on that, since Meridian is opening and Clayton would be closer to them.
We're waiting to hear more on that from the Kiker rep.
Thanks for signing the petition - and encourage your neighbors to do so, even if they don't have kids at Mills.
I guess I don't understand something. If VOWO kids were sent to Boone, wouldn't they still keep the tracking pattern they have now (Small/Bowie). But instead of following that pattern from a split Mills, they'd be doing it from a split Boone? I'm not trying to argue about who should go where, I'm just trying to figure out what would happen. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteHank, I'll try to explain why VOWO parents are so upset about their kids being singled out to solve Boone's capacity problems. First and foremost this is NOT just a tracking issue, even though that's what the board has framed it as. This will make the values of our houses drop, and frankly Boone is just not a desireable school for our kids. To answer your question "isn't a split Boone the same as a split Mills?" A) Half the students at Mills will feed into Small, then go on to Bowie High School whereas most Boone kids go to Covington then Crockett. B) If the VOWO kids started going to Boone, only they would go to Small from Boone; the vast majority of Boone students feed into other Jr. HIghs further east. C) Also most Boone kids don't end up at Bowie H.S., they end up at other high schools further east. In other words, the VOWO kids would start at Boone and then only they would leave that elementary and go to Small (where they'd know nobody except each other) and then Bowie HS; while the majority of Boone kids would be headed to other schools in East Austin after elementary.
ReplyDeleteWe're working on a "flow" chart that would show that progression - we'll share it once it's completed.
ReplyDeleteI see two issues with tracking and sending Mills kids to Boone. First if 100 Mills kids are changed to Boone, they would under current MS and HS boundaries go to a different middle school and high school than about 83% of the kids in Boone. The second possibility is that later AISD would realize that does not make sense and want to change the boundaries of the former Mills kids to track to Covington MS and Crockett HS with the rest of Boone. So either the kids would start MS knowing 1 or 2 kids or they would be sent to Covington and Crockett.
ReplyDeleteSending kids from the Mills area to Boone -when there are three closer elementary schools (Mills, Kiker, Patton) -- then sending them even FARTHER away to Covington MS and Crockett HS would be completely insane, and a disaster for those neighborhoods. Who in their right mind would ever buy a house there again? It would be like the AISD singling out some neighborhoods for value destruction. Think of the lost tax revenue for them! Let's hope that doesn't happen. I'm hopeful that sanity prevails and Kiker and Patton are where the Mills kids end up going.
ReplyDeleteCan not agree anymore with Mat. Sending Mills kids to Boone does not make any sense, while there are two closer schools (Kiker and Pattern)under capacity.
ReplyDeleteThis particular petition focuses on the tracking issue. I think we should have a separate petition or letter or email flurry (or all 3) for each separate issue.
ReplyDeleteRegarding tracking, it was mentioned a couple times tonight at the FUBTF meeting, and will become crystal clear soon, that the undercrowding criteria and the tracking criteria are (almost) mutually exclusive. That is, Boone cannot get very many new students without messing up their tracking. We should be prepared for them to propose a solution that attempts to violate tracking, even though the facilitator and AISD insisted at tonights meeting that these were not idly chosen criteria, i.e. they are serious about attempting to honor tracking -- we'll see just how committed they are.
Mike
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI urge you to wait on writing letters and blasting emails - you can continue to gather signatures on the tracking petition. If we do need to go that route, it should be at a strategic time. I don't think now's the time.
Thanks for coming last night - and I apologize if I was short with anyone who tried to talk to Lisa and I at the breaks - it's really the only time we have to conver with the other reps and we were trying to find out what they were thinking.
You and Lisa are the leaders, and doing a very good job, so yes, we will wait. I do think that there should be multiple petitions, one for each rationale.
ReplyDeleteNo problem on being short, we're there to help you, not the other way around. And I'm sorry for interrupting, you are right that your time in the meeting is scarce.
Mike Fair
Mike,
ReplyDeleteWhat issues would you start petitions for? Would these be the same issues reflected in the survey we gathered?
Right now, I think the best thing we can do is continue to have a presence at the meetings and have as strong an argument against changing existing tracking as we can.
I believe that we have a lot of common ground with the other geographic reps and I feel the district is listening to our priorities.
That doesn't mean parents should disengage. The next 2 meetings will be when the map really gets decided - my opinion.
Indeed the next 2 meetings, starting tonight, will be critical for our neighborhood to engage in, as reps and parents from all the other schools will be proposing changes to the straw plan, providing substantive rationale for those changes, and generally arguing for outcomes for their schools that best meet their particular set of concerns. The most effective way for us parents to help our reps in engaging in this back and forth process is for us to show up en masse, thereby demonstrating that the proposals, comments, and arguments of our repa are backed up by parents' vigorous involvement and deep-seated concern.
ReplyDeleteMike
There are also direct steps that the neighborhood can take. The tracking survey is the best, since it articulates everyone's #1 concern and the most effective (as measured by the task force criteria) of the rationale points.
ReplyDeleteSo there are two reasons for parents to also engage in further voicing of their particular concerns. One is to reveal to the board, who reads this blog, that our neighborhood continues to be seriously engaged in the details of the process. The second is that other schools will make detailed arguments based on issues other than tracking. All is fair in parenting! The board needs to be aware that our parents have detailed responses to all the potential points of debate that will come up, and the our reps need may need to be able to point to numbers showing how our parents feel about all the issues.
If other schools advocate for meeting capacity targets by breaking tracking, we should be prepared to comment on also breaking the stability criteria. If Mopac is breached, we should solicit opinions to see how many parents feel crossing Mopac is a problem. If my tiny neighborhood is singled out for a change, our street wants to point out that our community ties will be broken, even though this is not a board criteria. If there are multiple options for where a neighborhood could be reassigned, I think there will be many parents who have their own measurements of school quality that they want to explain.
These are some of the issues that I anticipate may come up in the next few weeks, so it seems good to me to be prepared by circulating these ideas for comment.
That said, the point is well taken that our task force reps have an excellent plan and great relationships with all the other reps and their parent communities. It is wise not to get out ahead of the process too much, and not to rock the boat.
Mike
I agree with Mike 100 percent. I think that Plan 0 was great and seemed to accomplish the goals without damage to the sense community, tracking, proximity to schools, etc. Now let's see what has happened behind the scenes over the last week.
ReplyDeleteLots of issues came up tonight, the end result of which is that my neighborhood is being asked to make a move that is, in my opinion, much worse than other possible outcomes for me or other current concessions by many in SW Austin. Many of the comments in support of this proposal were not based on the tracking rationale. Also, I am convinced that the community at large does not understand the depth of my neighborhood concern about this outcome or about the breadth of ideas about why it's bad for us.
ReplyDeleteSo is now a good time to start a flurry of emails?
Mike
Mike, I would say whether Western Oaks/ Villages of Western Oaks should send a flurry of emails depends: How favorably did everyone else look upon this proposal by Boone to irrationally break tracking patterns? Who makes the final decision? If Boone just threw it out there, and was ignored that's one thing. But if their proposal gained traction and had support then yes I'd say it could be time to voice the concerns and explain the issue. Do you think it's needed?
ReplyDeleteI think our street is on very thin ice.
ReplyDeleteAnd so is everyone between Mopac and McGee.
Mike - I understand you want to do something at this point. I think tracking/feeder patterns is a concern for Clayton, Oak Hill, Mills, Patton and Kiker. I don't know about the core members - they seem concerned about filling up the under-utilized schools.
ReplyDeleteI think sending emails would just go to the staff, and they understand our position.
Could you write a letter that summarizes the tracking issue for you and your neighborhood? We could strategically send that to the core members.
I'm not sure at this point exactly what to do. I'm open to suggestions.
I appreciate the quandary you are in, (and your sacrifices), and your hard work. I support all of the goals held by various Mills stakeholders, but within limits. A fully cordial process was never a possibility.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I am available to work towards all the goals. So yes, I will write a letter, and attempt to get 20-30 cosigners so that it represents our streets. But many of us have other reasons for concern as well, so I will repeat this process for each of these. The FUBTF doesn't care about community cohesiveness, but we do so its worth making a fuss about. The Boone reps were the first to explicitly mention that their school is equivalent to the others. I disagree, and since they brought it up, I am forced to provide a counter argument. Respectful, but counter. If my neighbors have other concerns, other ideas about what is/isn't okay, then they should be provided a voice before it's too late, which is soon.
I look forward to working with you to effectively air these concerns to those that need to hear.
Great, keep in touch on this issue, and we can get together soon. I would like to have it out before the next meeting.
ReplyDelete