Benefits to the Administration

Our proposal brings equitable options to students and their families. The design of this system also provides major benefits to the administration.

Standardizing education across the district:

  • Follows the district’s K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 tenet with no exceptions

  • Removes the current magnet system’s accessibility concerns completely (Only exception is CAPA 9-12)

  • Core curriculum met at all schools (ELA, Science, Math, Art, Music, Phys Ed) plus more opportunities created through thematic learning

Greater Control of Resource Distribution:

  • Control over enrollment distribution across schools - balanced school sizes even as demographics change

  • Control over class sizes - admission process includes both school and class size balancing (see School Choice Process for more details)

  • Current district plan’s classroom/capacity deficiencies solved by our enrollment distribution model (see Building Data Analysis)

Greater Flexibility:

  • Enrollment is proportionally distributed across schools in a region, dynamically adapting to shifting demographics rather than redrawing attendance zones

  • Ability to add and subtract buildings to the model without having to reconsider attendance zones and feeder patterns

Reduced Current Administrative Workload:

  • No need for demographer work, now or in the future (may be beneficial for strategic planning but not necessary)

  • No expensive building additions are needed - just updating/renovations of existing facilities

  • No need to ever redraw attendance zones again

  • School admission is one process, making school choice part of the admission process (except CAPA 9-12, performance based admission)

  • Eliminates current ‘magnet process’ (except CAPA 9-12), eliminating workload associated with that current process

  • No need to construct solutions to the substantial deficiencies in classrooms and seats in the current proposal

  • Community driven initiatives coordinated through community liaisons reduces programming development load on administration

  • Maximize available program offerings, in a fiscally responsible manner by offering them per region instead of per school

Competitive Advantage:

  • Allows district to offer programs and specialties that compete with charter, private, and suburban schools while still driving equity

  • Allows for expansion of ‘in demand’ subjects or themes that are producing great results

Community/Staff Buy-In:

  • Less resistance from constituents makes for easier admin/board work

  • Buy in from families, teachers, students, etc is one of the strongest drivers of student outcomes

  • Happy families, teachers, students, and community members make happy board members/administrators

Enrollment Effects:

  • Better competition with charters, private and suburban school

  • Potential to decrease attrition

  • Ability to more easily expand if/when students are brought back into the system

Neighborhood/Government Collaboration:

  • Collaboration with local govt could bring many mutually beneficial arrangements for the schools and the city

  • No neighborhood disruption from attendance zones issues - reduces upset parents with the district

  • Community services through our schools helps meet family needs, which drives up attendance and outcomes for students

Other Benefits:

  • Transportation benefits - while our proposal may be a little more transportation heavy than the district proposal, it is less so than what we currently do, while creating more options for our families

We tried to keep this more of a list and not full descriptions, but there is more information about all of these in our various detail pages listed under the Plan Details heading.