Decision Time

Are we in a capacity crisis in our schools? WCPSS and the BOE say yes, but their actions say no. Sure, they converted 22 schools to the year round calendar, but even before Judge Manning's ruling they denied applicants to voluntary year round if it didn't suit their diversity goals. After Manning's ruling, when families could opt out of year round and WCPSS found many of their year round schools underenrolled, they still refused to allow students into the year round seats.

My husband and I applied for year round for our two elementary age sons. After being initally rejected, we pursued it all the way through the appeals process. We offered to attend any track at any of the four year round schools located within five miles of our home. We were denied those schools but were offered one 11 miles away, which we turned down. After the latest figures were released showing two of our choices at less than 80% capacity we made some additional phone calls asking them to please reconsider our applicantion, but they still turned us down. I asked Growth Management why and the answer was "We're leaving those seats open for new growth".

Only 13% of applicants were accepted this year at our year round option, Durant Road Elementary, which is severely overcrowded. Even though Durant has been overcrowded and hard to get into for several years now, the BOE voted to assign a new higher income node there for next year. Why would they do this when that means there are even fewer seats available to applicants? I asked Growth Management when they were going to offer families in my area a true year round option. The answer? If we do that, then too many higher income families will apply and the F&R numbers will increase at surrounding schools.

WCPSS and the BOE caused upheaval and lost the trust of some families with the year round conversions, but now they are blatantly squandering this new resource that they've fought so hard for. They continue to whine and blame Judge Manning's decision for the underenrolled year round schools and overcrowded traditional schools, but they only have themselves to blame. Its decision time, WCPSS. Which is the most pressing issue, finding seats for all of our students or trying to balance the F&R rates? It seems you can't do both.