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Post by rew on Nov 12, 2008 14:09:13 GMT -6
Since there was a discussion about portables at Young next year, I pulled out my dreaded capacity sheet from the district website dated 1/31/2008 (it's current)
I used the recently released 2008/09 enrollment figures to see the crowding or lack of at each building...
I will quote the 90% capacity figures which the district uses as ideal.
This chart is 90%capacity vs actual 08/09 enrollment = difference
Brookdale 585 vs 521 = 64
Brooks 765 662 103
Builta 765 705 60
Clow 585 451 134
Cowlishaw 765 669 96
Fry 855 851 4
Georgetown 630 621 9
Gombert 585 523 62
Graham 765 631 134
Kendall 765 701 64
Longwood 428 416 16
McCarty 765 639 126
Owen 765 566 199
Patterson 855 701 154
Peterson 765 472 293
Springbrook 855 807 48
Steck 765 698 67
Watts 765 595 170
Welch 855 856 - 1
White Eagle 765 558 207
Young 765 796 - 31
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Post by rew on Nov 12, 2008 14:16:41 GMT -6
IMO, there is no need for portables at Young. There is excess capacity at the three nearest schools...Brooks (103) Steck (67) and McCarty (126)
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Post by casey on Nov 12, 2008 15:58:59 GMT -6
I don't know enough about Young Elementary. Does it have the same design as Fry and Welch? If so, why can those schools hold more students without portables?
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Post by Arch on Nov 12, 2008 16:11:52 GMT -6
Not sure if this is a real pic (minus the dolphins) or a 'stock' image... But.. if this is the school, it looks like the design of Welch.  |
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Post by momto2princesses on Nov 12, 2008 21:01:35 GMT -6
Long time lurker and parent of 2 Young Elementary students here! That is a real picture of Young. I have heard whispers of portables at our school (from other parents not from any PTB). Our music and art classes lost their classrooms this year (due to all day kindergarten). I think some parents would like to see those classes in portables, versus art on a cart and music on the gym stage! That's all that I have heard.
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Post by Arch on Nov 12, 2008 21:08:12 GMT -6
Long time lurker and parent of 2 Young Elementary students here! That is a real picture of Young. I have heard whispers of portables at our school (from other parents not from any PTB). Our music and art classes lost their classrooms this year (due to all day kindergarten). I think some parents would like to see those classes in portables, versus art on a cart and music on the gym stage! That's all that I have heard. That would be a darn good use of them; to get those programs back into a regular classroom. My jaw hit the floor at the SB meeting about ADK last year when it was told to the board that 'studies show the students do better when the materials come to them'. I hope Young (and every other school) does get both of those programs back into full classrooms. |
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Post by doctorwho on Nov 12, 2008 22:51:15 GMT -6
Long time lurker and parent of 2 Young Elementary students here! That is a real picture of Young. I have heard whispers of portables at our school (from other parents not from any PTB). Our music and art classes lost their classrooms this year (due to all day kindergarten). I think some parents would like to see those classes in portables, versus art on a cart and music on the gym stage! That's all that I have heard. That would be a darn good use of them; to get those programs back into a regular classroom. My jaw hit the floor at the SB meeting about ADK last year when it was told to the board that 'studies show the students do better when the materials come to them'. I hope Young (and every other school) does get both of those programs back into full classrooms. I agree -- my oldest was at Watts before the addition was built and bursting at the time...and they moved to art on a cart and combined music classes in open area. It was terrible. Today, many years later with a degree in education - she will tell any who listen how bad she and other kids thought it was. The teachers at the time ( both now retired ) also told us how ineffective it was.... Yet we saw this parade of speakers singing the praises of art on a cart etc.-- it truly was stunning -- however little stuns me here any more today. I hope the Young kids get a real classroom setting back ASAP. |
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Post by rew on Nov 13, 2008 6:24:26 GMT -6
But if Brooks, Steck and McCarty all have excess capacity, why would portables be the answer as opposed to shifting some students? Is there room at the other schools or are they projected to gain alot of students and be overcrowded next year??
Some of the Young attendance area is closer to Brooks than Young?
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Post by rew on Nov 13, 2008 8:24:38 GMT -6
We have portables at Scullen currently. They put the health classes in them, so every student uses the portables.
But I would caution...the kids have to walk outside to and from the portables, in snow, in rain etc. And, they are not allowed to wear coats to the portables because there is no room to have coats in the classroom etc.
If you have portables for art or music, you have kindergartners walking outside in the snow in January with no coats/boots etc??? Parents would have to be awfully supportive.
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Post by doctorwho on Nov 13, 2008 8:47:44 GMT -6
But if Brooks, Steck and McCarty all have excess capacity, why would portables be the answer as opposed to shifting some students? Is there room at the other schools or are they projected to gain alot of students and be overcrowded next year?? Some of the Young attendance area is closer to Brooks than Young? Very good questions -- call me silly - but my expectations were that when we spent $150 million - it would be to optimize all classroom space going forward ( at every ed level ) to give each 204 child the best experience possible. Potables is not that experience. Art and music on a cart is not that. Also my expectations were that we would look to minimize travel costs and convenience for ALL 204 students - not just 15% of them or so. But then, I must have set the bar too high....don't worry though,we'll all get another chance to throw money at it in a few years.  |
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Post by Arch on Nov 13, 2008 9:00:27 GMT -6
Doc,
I agree with you that we had/have the opportunity to do a complete top-down fix of all the hacks and patches over the years. Since it looks like that's not happening, I'll at least be happy that the kids at Young (if that is what the portables are there to do) will get a FAIR AND EQUITABLE Elementary School experience with respect to Art and Music, like the other schools that still have them in regular classrooms.
It was wrong to create the discrepancy in the first place.
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Post by rew on Nov 13, 2008 9:11:40 GMT -6
Arch, the discrepancies have been here all along. My senior was in a kindergarten class of 32. Was that the norm for the district at the time, no. He had art on a cart and music on a cart all his years at White Eagle. Inequities exist all over the district.
The argument is do we have a means of addressing the inequities. In my case, the district was opening new schools right and left and with each new opening was a promise of eventually relieving the overcrowding. And that has happened, (just not in time for my kids)look at White Eagle , 207 excess seats.
The point I would like to make is we have excess capacity in the system now. Why should we be discussing portables at Young? Like DW says we should be addressing this with longer term solutions like reboundaring the ESs. This shouldn't be rocket science. Unless there is a bubble at Young why would we solve the problems with portables?
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Post by blankcheck on Nov 13, 2008 10:44:24 GMT -6
What this shows me is that we have almost 2,000 empty seats throughout our district
(based on operating at 90%). That is a lot of empty space.
Is this overcrowding temporary at Young?
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Post by Arch on Nov 13, 2008 11:55:05 GMT -6
Rew,
I'm on the same page with you as far as taking a top-down approach and re-allocating the plentiful resources we have to equalize the school experiences for kids. My only point was that since it's not really happening that way (that we have any signs of); the fact that some are being addressed is a good thing. HOW they are being addressed I tried to leave my opinion out of... only glad to see some kids getting the experiences back. (Again, this is assuming this is what the portables are for).
At the end of the day, I agree.... we can shift boundaries enough to better utilize the capacities we have in this regard.
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Post by rew on Nov 13, 2008 13:23:12 GMT -6
Blanckcheck,
yes we have some excess at the ES level, but our class sizes are large IMO.
Once the new HS is opened we will have some excess at the MS level. But w/o the 7th MS we are 617 seats short.
MS 8200 x 90% = 7380 08/09 enrollment = 6917
You can never be spot on. I would rather have excess in the system than the sardine experience my kids have had.
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