Saturday, April 26, 2008

Jefferson school plan revised to offer more choice

This from C-J:

Parents get more elementary choices
Jefferson County Public Schools is making more changes to its proposed student-assignment plan, reducing the number of elementary school clusters, in part to give parents more choice.

The revisions, which will be presented to the school board for discussion Monday night, will reduce the number of elementary clusters, putting more schools in each cluster for parents to choose from.

It's the second time this month that officials have changed the student-assignment proposal, which is designed to keep schools diverse in the wake of last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the district's old plan...

...Berman said the changes would still require between 1,700 and 3,400 elementary students to switch schools.

The district might grandfather in those students, allowing them to stay in their schools. But that would cost between $800,000 and $2.1 million in 2009-10.

"At this point, both the school board and I would like to grandfather all these students in, because it would mean that their lives would not have to be interrupted," Berman said. "But I am very concerned about the cost of grandfathering."

Letting students stay in their schools is extremely important to many parents, said Traci Priddy, president of the 15th District PTA...



Photo by Pam Spaulding.

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