Some clarification of the issue of "school choice"

Time is running short on getting those boundary waiver and choice forms in!

Thanks to tls1995, we now know that if you received a NCLB letter telling you that your child is eligible for school choice, the forms for making a choice are somewhat convoluted. tls1995 was concerned that she may have the wrong form. The form she has only shows middle school choice, her child is a primary school student. Apparently, if she wants to opt out of her school, she will need to click here for a different application and get the form into the District Office by Wednesday, August 8, 2012.

Thanks to Anonymous for providing the information. It's a good thing that people who work for the District read this blog!

"CHOICE" options at Peoria Public Schools?

A lot of us have been talking about wanting "choice" in District 150 for some time now. The District has CHOICE school info posted on their website, I have reposted some of it below. Is this what we were talking about when we asked for school choice?

School Choice - OverviewCHOICE Schools and Programs allow students to opt-out or opt-in to select schools throughout the District. Schools that are considered CHOICE, are designated for a variety of reasons. A school might be a Magnet program, Academy, may follow a different schedule than the traditional schools at PPS or may be designated as a school in restructuring, as outline in the No Child Left Behind Act. Here is a list of CHOICE options at Peoria Public Schools:

Specialized Programs (SP)
•Northmoor Primary, Franklin Primary and Rolling Acres Middle - Each of these schools follows a different, longer schedule than the rest of the District. The day begins at 7:30 a.m. for each of these buildings and ends at 2:45 p.m. The longer school day equates to 45 minutes additional contact time than a student at other schools in the District would receive. The additional minutes also allows extra time for teacher team planning and professional development, and more “extras” for students, such as foreign language, art, and/or music.
•Roosevelt Magnet School - While also housing a traditional primary and middle school, Roosevelt Magnet also accepts students that wish to focus on the fine arts during their middle school years.
•Manual 7th and 8th Grade Academy OR 9th Grade Academy and High School Career Academies - The academy structure for Manual middle and high school students uses a block schedule. These academies follow a curriculum based on the recommendations of Johns Hopkins University.

Boundary Waivers (BW)
Boundary Waiver (BW) requests are received for a short window each fall, prior to the start of school. Applications for boundary waivers must be approved by Central Office Administration, the Principal of both the receiving and exiting school, illustrate a specific concern with the student's “home” school and space (and resources) must be available in the receiving school. Transportation is not provided by the District for approved Boundary Waiver requests.

School Improvement (NCLB-SI) (Separate Form Provided by the Illinois State Board of Education)
This program is available for district students attending a Title I school that has not met one or more of its identified academic targets known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for at least two years in a row. These schools are identified as School Improvement (SI) schools. Authorized in the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), Peoria Public Schools provides parents of all students enrolled in a School Improvement (SI) school up to two designated non-SI receiving school choice options. The School Improvement School Choice (SISC) Pattern for each school year is based on the test results received in the spring prior to the start of each school year. The District is mandated to send a letter and form approved by the Illinois State Board of Education to families residing in NCLB-SI boundary areas each spring.

Charter Schools (Application available through Charter School)
One Charter School is authorized by the PPS Board of Education. However, they do not use the CHOICE Schools/Programs Application, as it is not a district run school. Visit the Quest Charter Academy website (www.questpeoria.org) to learn more about enrollment procedures for this Charter School. (Yeah, they actually mentioned Quest.)

To find out who is eligible to opt-in; should students re-apply each year; what to do if you don't like the school that was selected; or if your child will receive District-provided transportation, click here.

School choice for the inner city is looking up

Initially, the K-8 plan for the Lincoln and Woodruff campus didn't stand a chance because it was a part of the overall plan to close Woodruff High School. However, now that Woodruff High School is closed, it is my opinion that the best use for the building would be to create the K-8 campus between Lincoln and Woodruff.

BOE President Wolfmeyer may not want to open it back up and many in the community will be against it – but at some point people are going to have separate the emotional from the rational in relation to Ken Hinton.

Many of us didn’t care to see Hinton come in and even more of us were thrilled to see him go, but when are we going to stop fighting every thing he ever put before us? He had a few good ideas and the K-8 campus was/is one of them. The K-8 campus is a perfect fit for the community in which it sits.

This should be a no-brainer for the BOE. With this decision, school choice for the inner city could actually be realized. The Woodruff/Lincoln K-8 campus; the new community school at Glen Oak; the new high school at Peoria Central; Knoxville Center; Washington Gifted; the neighborhood schools and the Charter School. The options for inner city children and parents are really starting to look up.

I would encourage the BOE to spend the money on Peoria High School, make it the best inner city high school you can; and then bring the Lincoln/Woodruff K-8 campus to fruition it would be the best use of the buildings and the dollars.