100 seek school transfers under new TUSD policy
ADVERTISEMENT
EVER-READY GLASS
SALES REPS Trades/Construction
Sun Tran
PT Maintenance Supervisor General
COMMUNITY PROVIDER OF ENRICHMENT SERVICES
CAREER GROWTH Finance and Accounting
Sun Van
Accounting Analyst Finance and Accounting
FLOWERS, RIEGER & ASSOCIATES
TAX STAFF Job Fairs
Southwest Truck Driver Training
Accounting Assistant Health Care
CHILDREN'S CLINICS
MEDICAL RECORDS SUPERVISOR
- Most Commented Stories Today
- Most E-mailed Stories Today
About 100 students are trying to get into different TUSD schools now that the district has repealed a policy that severely restricted transfers.
Calls will go out this weekend to those who will be able to change schools so students can start as early as Monday. Employees in School Community Services at Tucson Unified School District have been working almost nonstop since Aug. 29, when an open-enrollment period began. It closed Friday.
Now, lack of space - not interfering with the racial or ethnic balance of a school - is the only reason a student should not be allowed to move from one school to another.
But it appears the space limitation will be a big obstacle for at least a third of those who applied in this most recent open enrollment.
For example, there are more than 185 applications from last year for Miles Exploratory Learning Center and the school is at capacity.
Other schools, including Van Buskirk Elementary, Secrist Middle School and Sahuaro High School, had few or no spots open and students from those schools aren't applying to move elsewhere.
But there are other schools, for example Brichta Elementary, that still have a substantial number of kindergarten slots available, said Pam Fine, director of School Community Services.
Vacancies at other schools range from one or two at various grade levels to a dozen or so in any grade.
In the open enrollment that closed Friday, Fruchthendler Elementary, on the far East Side, had nine requests from parents of students who wanted to transfer there. It has 44 vacancies, but none in first or second grade. Midtown's Rincon High School had 10 requests. It has 10 spots each for freshmen and sophomores, but none for juniors or seniors.
More than 90 students denied transfers in last year's open enrollment already have been informed they may move to the school they wanted, Fine said. They had until Friday to accept the new assignment.
Some already are at their new schools, although Fine said she had no estimate of how many accepted.
She said that throughout TUSD, "no one school got a lot."
Fine's staff began calling parents of those students after the TUSD governing board repealed the policy Aug. 28.
"This is a true beginning of a new way of operating at TUSD," said spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander. "This is a whole new approach to student assignment, and it's absolutely more fair and supports parental choice."
The policy is being challenged, however, by attorneys in a desegregation lawsuit who say it still should be in place.
As for the nearly 100 applications since Aug. 28, Lander said is was "about what we were expecting. We were not expecting to be inundated with requests because the school year already had started, children were settled in and parents don't like to uproot their children in the middle of the school year."
She said there could be a larger response when open enrollment for the 2008-09 school year begins in November.
The new enrollment plan was a blessing for Ana Chavez, whose 11-year-old son, Adrian Chavez, had been attending Booth-Fickett Math/Science Magnet. "We had lived in the area, so he was enrolled because it was his neighborhood school. But then we moved, so he would have had to go somewhere else. Now he can stay there," she said.
Taking into account the numbers of students who wanted to transfer from schools last year and during the new open enrollment, Naylor Middle School, which has been labeled a "failing" school by the state, led the pack with 85 students seeking to leave; 57 have sought to move from Santa Rita High; and 45 want to depart from both Palo Verde High and Catalina High Magnet.
Open-enrollment ruling challenged, Page 3A
- Read All Comments » 0 TOTAL COMMENTS
- Post a Comment »