Category: Student Assignment

Accountability, EARN the People's Vote, Student Assignment, Teachable Moment

Dear JCPS Severs Ties with AROS

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When efforts to reconcile differences over support of West End and Black families continued to break down, Dear JCPS was left with no other option than to withdraw from the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, Louisville.

Full story.

“Instead, Dear JCPS is honored to be working with the Kentucky Alliance Education Committee on their revival of the People’s Agenda, to include a list of demands for JCPS. Their organization meets Monday’s at 4:30 PM via Zoom,” Adelmann said. “When the dust settles, we want to be standing on the right side of history. AROS Louisville, under its current leadership, is on the wrong side of history. And we wanted to distance ourselves as quickly and vocally as possible.” 

#StandWithBlackJCPSStudents #BlackJCPSStudentsMatter

Accountability, Behavior/Discipline, District Boundaries, Privatization of Public Education, Standardized Testing, Student Assignment, Teacher Shortage, Vision: 2020

Educational Justice With “E’s”

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This is a DRAFT of our legislative priorities for 2020. We want your input! Please help us rank them and provide examples of each of the categories listed below. Suggested edits and additions also welcome.

ACHIEVING EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE in JCPS “with E’S”

FROM OUR JCPS BOARD MEMBERS & SUPERINTENDENT, we demand:

  • EVIDENCE-BASED education practices
  • Realistic EXPECTATIONS
  • EXPERIENCED teachers, staff and leaders
  • EMPOWERED students and advocates
  • EQUITABLE funding, resources and access
  • ENRICHING experiences
  • ENGAGING, culturally competent curriculum
  • Nurturing and safe learning ENVIRONMENTS
  • EXTERNAL community supports
  • Supportive and meaningful EVALUATIONS

FROM OUR LOCAL AND STATE LEADERS, we demand:

  • Accountability and Transparency
  • Authentic Education Reform and
  • #FullyFundED Public Schools

For EVERYONE!

To submit your feedback, click here.

District Boundaries, Privatization of Public Education, Student Assignment

#WeChoose Equity

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F O R   I M M E D I A T E   R E L E A S E

For more information, contact:

Gay Adelmann                                     De’Nita Wright
Dear JCPS                                              Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
502-565-8397                                        502-403-3926

A video of our press conference can be found here.

To the JCPS School Board: “Stop School Closures/Mergers in Black, Brown and Poor Communities; New Construction Should Not Be Based on Current Student Assignment Plan; Student Assignment Plan Should Come First!; Gather Authentic Community Feedback; Fight the State Takeover!”

JCPS is scheduled to be audited again in the Fall of 2020, where another state takeover recommendation is imminent. To prevent this from happening, an authentic, community-supported student assignment plan must be developed, we must prevent the closure of schools in black, brown and poor communities, and we must stop the dangerous merger of schools with high concentrations of poverty and trauma, including our two alternative schools, all of which further feeds the privatizers’ agenda and fuels the pipeline to prison.

Our current JCPS school board was elected by this community and is accountable to its voters. This power is at risk of being stripped away when the state returns to audit the district in the Fall of 2020. A state takeover of JCPS will enable a handful of state leaders who are intent upon executing their financial backers’ plan, against the will of the voters. These state leaders were not elected by us and they are not accountable to us, and there will be nothing we can do to stop this assault, unless we take action now.

We challenge our 7 elected-members of the JCPS school board to support the following:

  1. Stop the closures and mergers of schools in black, brown and poor communities. Recognize this for what it is: an attack on public schools that serve our most vulnerable populations, straight out of the privatizers’ national playbook.
  2. Look for opportunities to fight for equitable solutions for students in black, brown and poor communities. Seek to develop and finalize an authentic, community-supported student assignment plan before moving forward with any new construction based on the current, inequitable, student assignment plan. The committee’s ability to bring the board meaningful recommendations should not be restricted by decisions made prematurely, without their input.
  3. Listen to the concerns of those serving our most vulnerable populations. Do not move forward with the dangerous consolidation of MDA and Breckinridge Metro. Put stakeholders on the renovation committee for Shawnee. Be intentional about using data gathering techniques that seek feedback from our most affected, most disenfranchised community members. There is currently no onramp for meaningful community input.

The Kentucky Alliance holds their People’s Agenda meetings every Sunday at 1:00 PM at the Carl Braden Center at 3208 W. Broadway. We invite the community, the media, and JCPS board members to come and participate in the dialogue, so that community input from the most affected community members is intentionally sought and incorporated into the final student assignment and facilities plans.

Please sign our petition here: https://dearjcps.com/petition

Student Assignment

Lack of Sibling Consideration is Problematic in Elementary Student Assignment

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Dear JCPS,

The lack of sibling consideration in school selection process is a major issue especially for those parents who have elementary school age children or single parent households. 

I am a widow, a single mom of two boys 5 and 6. My youngest son did not get into the same school as his brother(Brandeis Elementary). This is an issues on several levels. 

You want more parent involvement however, having kids at different schools will limit parent involvement. Currently, I serve on the PTA, I am a room parent, I attend all field trips, and class parties, however, having kids at two different schools I will have to pick who’s class party I attend and who I take to school on the first day. It is already hard as a single widowed mom. Instead, I am left with a heartbreaking choice of picking what event I will attend and what child I will accompany. For a mother, that is a heartbreaking choice that I refuse to make for the well being of my children. Having to pick which school I volunteer at will increase the chance of my sons thinking there is favoritism if I make it to one school and not the other. Research shows that having a parent involved increases the overall success of a student. However, when you split children you do not help parents to get involved… you make it harder. Holiday parties, conferences, and special events that fall on the same day will be impossible attend.

Secondly, the school system has allowed students who are technically not suppose to be in kindergarten to have slots. I don’t think it is fair if a child is tested up and entering school early that they should be able to have slots at magnet or traditional school. It takes away from the children who are starting on time and if parent chooses to test their child up then they should not be given priority over  students who are suppose to be in kindergarten. Rather they should have been the ones on the waiting list!

It is also not fair that the lottery pick selection process is not across the board. If you want to make changes and be fair it should be at all schools  in JCPS.  The Brown School was not a lottery pick and it really shows bias when it comes to the selection process. If the school board wants to make changes, the school board can not pick and choose which schools will follow suit. 

 Lastly, bullying is obviously an issue and research shows that having an older sibling at school decreases the incident of bullying. Why? Because the child has a sibling, a friend, someone to look out for them and with all the recent negative publicity JCPS is getting considering sibling placement should have been a priority to consider. 

Logistically,  I live in Fern Creek and my oldest  son attends school on 28th and Broadway. It would be impossible to get both of them to school. Not too mention if one of them decides to participate in sports and/or extracurricular activities. 

Of course, if all schools were equal I would not be having this issue. My  kids would have gone to their  home. However that is not the case and I do not believe it is unreasonable to consider siblings during school assignment process especially at the elementary school level. These are not kid self-sufficient like a middle or high schooler, They are very much still dependent on a parent to pick them up and drop them off. You leave me with a choice of up rooting a well established child in order to be able to function as a parent and have them both at the same school. Not the ideal choice for a child who is excelling within his current school.  

And I’m not just advocating for my own children! I know this complaint is widespeard and there are so many others in regards to the school assignment process. I have research statistics  in regards to children success over the years because of my career as a pediatric nurse practitioner. I have seen over and over again how JCPS and the system has failed our youth evidence by so many issues including but not limited to the increase in countless suspension and lack of mental health resources. I have wrote several letters for patients  in support of parents because JCPS would not address certain issues. Yes, I believe some of it stems from parenting skills  but a lot of times it’s due JCPS’ failures.  

Having this background and knowledge And as a single mother of two young African-American males I want to beat the statistics  of their success rate. I have taken the extra steps, I made arrangements to take a part time position so that I could be more involved, I serve on the PTA and volunteer my time to aid in the success of my boys. However, JCPS is definitely hindering the support and engagement I can give to my boys by splitting and dividing my family in to two different schools. 

You all should definitely consider keeping families together. That should be a priority in school selection process.  

Sincerely,

Concerned Parent