Disappointment

[wvhsparent]

OK now that everyone is disappointed, what reasoned presentations is everyone planning on making to the SB advocating changes?

We all have a different perspective on why things are done the way they are. My thought is that of the many proposals received by the SB many must have had the main theme of the bridge, prompting the addressing of that singular issue.
While totally agree some of the school assignments are messed up IMHO and the data provided is suspect, making that your main argument will probably not get anyone very far.

[jwh]

wvhsparent said:

OK now that everyone is disappointed, what reasoned presentations is everyone planning on making to the SB advocating changes?

We all have a different perspective on why things are done the way they are. My thought is that of the many proposals received by the SB many must have had the main theme of the bridge, prompting the addressing of that singular issue.
While totally agree some of the school assignments are messed up IMHO and the data provided is suspect, making that your main argument will probably not get anyone very far.

Yep, it's quite obvious they wouldn't go to the effort (mistake!?) of putting that letter in the packet unless they felt they had an overwhelming amount of feedback regarding bridge/walkers they needed to address. The bridge/walker subject was never even one of their criteria for the boundary proposal anyway.

[warriordiva]

wvhsparent said:

OK now that everyone is disappointed, what reasoned presentations is everyone planning on making to the SB advocating changes?

We all have a different perspective on why things are done the way they are. My thought is that of the many proposals received by the SB many must have had the main theme of the bridge, prompting the addressing of that singular issue.
While totally agree some of the school assignments are messed up IMHO and the data provided is suspect, making that your main argument will probably not get anyone very far.

[EagleDad]

wvhsparent said:

OK now that everyone is disappointed, what reasoned presentations is everyone planning on making to the SB advocating changes?

Fair enough. Here is my simple suggestion - Swap McCarty and Owen - it balances achievement while simultaneously rectifying the most aggregious commute.

It could also make enough attendance difference to keep Gombert together at WVHS.

[doctorwho]

rew said:

I want to make a clarification since ED may have been quoting my achievement gap numbers I posted yesterday. They are not 100% accurate, but I would guess neither are anyone else's.

The fact is, and I've said this before, when you are splitting ESs it is impossible to guess what the halves or the fourths are going to score.

That is why achievement scores/gaps are really for general discussion purposes.

But anyway you crunch the numbers, WVHS comes out with the lowest score and I think that is where the concern lies.

I would also point out that the WVHS disappointment is just one of many that ED pointed out.

The fact that the district has wasted, by their own numbers $16M in two lost construction seasons and now an added $5M in hurry up costs, and a minimum $5M in BB legal costs is an outrage. And NO ONE is taking responsibility.

Add to that the fact that, IMO, they have decided that they need minimal input from the community and then applaud themselves for their new streamlined decision making.

It adds insult to injury.

I agree it is polite to say disappointment.

FWIW -- I have what I believe to be a very accurate set of attainment and have done all the ES moves as put forth in the release with exact numbers for the areas being moved. I use the same format as was used by the SB last time -- the only wild card of course is that when you split an area you can only assume the kids moved are average scores from the school they originated - not a kid level score analysis - still as close as you're going to get without that.

as it stands today

WV 89.8 MV 91.2 NV 93.6


there is no adjustment for buildout as no one knows when that is going to come, and with some areas having lower enrollment already for K and 1st - too hard to predict how many and when.
The numbers are based on what is in the pipeline today.

You are also going to see more private school involvement - and while those numbers are relatively low compared to the whole, they will likely offset any growth over the next 24 months + unless there is a bigger economic stimulus package than $1200 a couple, or some candidate tells us how we are going to stop large corporations from off shoring all the rest of their white collar jobs.



Now as for the stereotype - as a 20 yr resident and always Warrior until we got thrown out -- the perception problem is perpetuated every time someone uses the phrase "New WVHS" as to me that says the perception problems were real before. Who coined that term and uses it ? Not ED.

When parents and 8th graders attend an orientation there and get told new boundaries will allow them to better compete with the Neuqua's of the world - what does that do to perpetuate the stereotype?

As a Warrior parent I take offense to anyone telling me someone else can better serve the school than Watts, economically / academically, parental support or any other way, and that is exactly what our parents took from that.

Constantly bringing up the fact that the SD is going to address the 'problerm' - is not coming from the parents.

I would be proud to attend WVHS exactly as it is today -- and would trade spots with anyone assigned there now.

Anyone who could sit through the new 5 minute film promoting the school and not be proud has other issues. But obviously my area is considered unable to 'help' this issue. How very sad.

WVHS is a great school now - period.

If you're looking for someone that keeps waving the flag on the issue, it is coming far more from the leaders of this district than the parents right now. Now I will tell you I know a few of them I do believe have the best of intentions with regards to WVHS - I just think too much time has been spent talking about it in public forums undermining what their intent is.

[doctorwho]

eagledad said:

wvhsparent said:

OK now that everyone is disappointed, what reasoned presentations is everyone planning on making to the SB advocating changes?

Fair enough. Here is my simple suggestion - Swap McCarty and Owen - it balances achievement while simultaneously rectifying the most aggregious commute.

It could also make enough attendance difference to keep Gombert together at WVHS.

We turned in a plan that not only balances achievement, but places WVHS 2nd - and it moves no walkers, and no ES goes to the 3rd furthest HS, but it obviously was not good enough. It can be done.....

[lacy]

thebeefeater said:

Eagle Dad,

I don't get your numbers. I ran the analysis my self and go a number closer to 90 for WVHS. I assumed full build out of course with the full complement of ashwood students. I also was sure to pull half of Gombert out into MV. I don't understand how you can remove Longwood (the worst performing ES in the district), half of Gombert (the third worst performing ES in the district), all of Brookdale (5th worst performing ES in district) along with pieces of McCarty, replace them with WE and Fry and end up with a bigger achievement gap. Please help me understand.

As for the bus times... It was my understanding that the district is being efficient with you tax dollars by not throwing too many busses at schools close to HS while at the same time being respectful of those communites with longer commutes by placing more busses into those communities. i.e. MW busses have few stops while the Steck busses are milk runs.

As for the bridge memo. I couldn't agree more. What moron decided to include this random piece of information into the packet. I will never know.

As for the WV perception. I think it would behouve you to be supportive of WV and to not perpetuate these myths about the school being such a week school. I have always had a great deal of respect for the WE and Tall Grass brand names and I think the rest of the district does to. Your presence will go along way to correcting these myths. I think that WV will once again be viewed as the great school that it truely is. As fellow Warrior I look forward to righting the wrongs and fixing the perception.

I thought I had seen it all.... But this takes the cake.

My child is NOT a Brand name.

Up yours, Beefeater.

[macy]

lacy said:

thebeefeater said:

Eagle Dad,

I don't get your numbers. I ran the analysis my self and go a number closer to 90 for WVHS. I assumed full build out of course with the full complement of ashwood students. I also was sure to pull half of Gombert out into MV. I don't understand how you can remove Longwood (the worst performing ES in the district), half of Gombert (the third worst performing ES in the district), all of Brookdale (5th worst performing ES in district) along with pieces of McCarty, replace them with WE and Fry and end up with a bigger achievement gap. Please help me understand.

As for the bus times... It was my understanding that the district is being efficient with you tax dollars by not throwing too many busses at schools close to HS while at the same time being respectful of those communites with longer commutes by placing more busses into those communities. i.e. MW busses have few stops while the Steck busses are milk runs.

As for the bridge memo. I couldn't agree more. What moron decided to include this random piece of information into the packet. I will never know.

As for the WV perception. I think it would behouve you to be supportive of WV and to not perpetuate these myths about the school being such a week school. I have always had a great deal of respect for the WE and Tall Grass brand names and I think the rest of the district does to. Your presence will go along way to correcting these myths. I think that WV will once again be viewed as the great school that it truely is. As fellow Warrior I look forward to righting the wrongs and fixing the perception.

I thought I had seen it all.... But this takes the cake.

My child is NOT a Brand name.

Up yours, Beefeater.

I'm currently choking on my boxed wine!!!

[Arch]

macy said:

lacy said:

I thought I had seen it all.... But this takes the cake.

My child is NOT a Brand name.

Up yours, Beefeater.

I'm currently choking on my boxed wine!!!

Mine is all over the laptop presently.

[we4]

lacy said:

thebeefeater said:

Eagle Dad,

I don't get your numbers. I ran the analysis my self and go a number closer to 90 for WVHS. I assumed full build out of course with the full complement of ashwood students. I also was sure to pull half of Gombert out into MV. I don't understand how you can remove Longwood (the worst performing ES in the district), half of Gombert (the third worst performing ES in the district), all of Brookdale (5th worst performing ES in district) along with pieces of McCarty, replace them with WE and Fry and end up with a bigger achievement gap. Please help me understand.

As for the bus times... It was my understanding that the district is being efficient with you tax dollars by not throwing too many busses at schools close to HS while at the same time being respectful of those communites with longer commutes by placing more busses into those communities. i.e. MW busses have few stops while the Steck busses are milk runs.

As for the bridge memo. I couldn't agree more. What moron decided to include this random piece of information into the packet. I will never know.

As for the WV perception. I think it would behouve you to be supportive of WV and to not perpetuate these myths about the school being such a week school. I have always had a great deal of respect for the WE and Tall Grass brand names and I think the rest of the district does to. Your presence will go along way to correcting these myths. I think that WV will once again be viewed as the great school that it truely is. As fellow Warrior I look forward to righting the wrongs and fixing the perception.

I thought I had seen it all.... But this takes the cake.

My child is NOT a Brand name.

Up yours, Beefeater.

Clap, clap, clap ;D

[doctorwho]

archwinsome said:

macy said:

I'm currently choking on my boxed wine!!!

Mine is all over the laptop presently.

I give Lacy -- ' Short Post of the Day ' == the 'Long Post of the Day ' goes to ED --

will have to keep a roll of paper towels next to the keyboard from now on......

[thebeefeater]

From Dr. Who

as it stands today

WV 89.8 MV 91.2 NV 93.6

I can confirm your numbers. I completed the same analysis ealier today and came up with the exact numbers. However, I did not work it out to the decimal place I just cam up with 90, 91, and 94 respectively. I then went back and plugged in the ISAT scores from the previous year and low and behold the numbers reversed.

WV 90, MV 89, NV was still at 94

How? you ask could it change like this? Well you can attribute this change to 2 schools. Both Young and Colishaw saw their numbers improve by approximately 6 full points. Colishaw, if you remember from the last go around was a title 1 school with scores near the bottom of the list. They are now sqarely in the middle of the pack. Young was right around 90 and saw its scores jump to be number 1 in the district. This is just to show that things change and schools improve. If you use an average of the last 2 years you will see that both MV and WV are on identical footing and isn't that what we want?

The bottom line is that WV is now much stronger and very much an equal to MV. Without some drastic bussing, we can't fix the NV outperformance but at the very least, WV and MV should be balanced and these boundaries do just that. If you pull Owen, or Watts, or even Colishaw for that matter, you will really hurt MV giving it a real perception issue beacuase of lower scores.

Another thing to remember is that the growth in WV is all comming from high end homes in ashwood while the growth at MV will be comming from new appartments being built around the mall. While WV will be getting stronger through its growth, MV continue to get weaker. Nothing you can do about it, it is just a fact. The only thing you can do is to make sure that MV is not penalized right at the starting gate. Make it an equal as the current boundaries do and lets get it done.

I am thrilled to hear from You (DoctorWho) and Arch and other from MW that your community is strong and supportive. That gives me a good feeling about the future of MV even though the growth will not be as productive as the WV growth.

[EagleDad]

OK, after checking the official moderators guidebook "Up yours" is considered a personal attack. While I am laughing myself, I am granting lacy a 1 day ban.

lacy, please watch it.

[warriorpride]

doctorwho said:

eagledad said:

Fair enough. Here is my simple suggestion - Swap McCarty and Owen - it balances achievement while simultaneously rectifying the most aggregious commute.

It could also make enough attendance difference to keep Gombert together at WVHS.

We turned in a plan that not only balances achievement, but places WVHS 2nd - and it moves no walkers, and no ES goes to the 3rd furthest HS, but it obviously was not good enough. It can be done.....

I see some valid complaints about long commutes and the Peterson triple-split, but pointing out that WV would be 2nd (i.e. not last/worst) makes it hard to see it presented as a "best for 204" solution - I am in support of suggesting some tweaks to reduce the maximum commutes, but let's not get into the game of trying to "not be last" - the numbers between WV and MV are close enough to be considered statisically insignificant. Who honestly thinks that an estimated 1 or 1.5 points difference on a 100 scales is meaningful?

What would not be fair would be having one HS that is sinificantly lower than the other two (for example 94, 94, 87 - which would have been a likely outcome with Hamman, for example) - that is what the SB was referring to as the albtross ---> They were not taking shots at past, present, or future Warriors. They were doing their best to protect all 3 HSs in the future.

[thebeefeater]

lacy said:

thebeefeater said:

Eagle Dad,

I don't get your numbers. I ran the analysis my self and go a number closer to 90 for WVHS. I assumed full build out of course with the full complement of ashwood students. I also was sure to pull half of Gombert out into MV. I don't understand how you can remove Longwood (the worst performing ES in the district), half of Gombert (the third worst performing ES in the district), all of Brookdale (5th worst performing ES in district) along with pieces of McCarty, replace them with WE and Fry and end up with a bigger achievement gap. Please help me understand.

As for the bus times... It was my understanding that the district is being efficient with you tax dollars by not throwing too many busses at schools close to HS while at the same time being respectful of those communites with longer commutes by placing more busses into those communities. i.e. MW busses have few stops while the Steck busses are milk runs.

As for the bridge memo. I couldn't agree more. What moron decided to include this random piece of information into the packet. I will never know.

As for the WV perception. I think it would behouve you to be supportive of WV and to not perpetuate these myths about the school being such a week school. I have always had a great deal of respect for the WE and Tall Grass brand names and I think the rest of the district does to. Your presence will go along way to correcting these myths. I think that WV will once again be viewed as the great school that it truely is. As fellow Warrior I look forward to righting the wrongs and fixing the perception.

I thought I had seen it all.... But this takes the cake.

My child is NOT a Brand name.

Up yours, Beefeater.

Well since we are going to get nasty...

Oh, I guess I'll restrain myself.

If you read the post it clearly states that the neighborhoods are positive brand names. Meaning they are well respected and a positive influence on the schools in terms of parental support, financial support, etc. Nowhere in the email did I mention your kids being brand names.

Given the nature I your response and the applause from your neighbor, perhaps I should evaluate my opinion of the area. Up mine? Come on, is that really necessary?