Changing School Options (CSO):
Dean DeGroot opened the meeting by welcoming Brenda Cassellius, Assoc. Superintendent of MPS (Area B & all Secondary Schools), who was asked to attend the meeting to talk about the current status of the Changing School Options process. Brenda first provided an overview of CSO, emphasizing that the intent of the changes were to provide sustainability, save money, reduce the city's achievement gap by 75%, and raise test scores. The CSO goal is to provide cost savings that will then be reinvested into our classrooms. Due to the MPS budget deficit as well as changes in state funding, there will be layoffs/downsizing, but the district is attempting to keep the community engaged during this painful process. The new timeline will mean that the Board will vote on the revised recommendations in late September, 2009.
Pam Costain, MPS Board member, elaborated on the new timeline. Decisions about the new CSO recommendations will be made in time for the 2010-2011 academic year publicity. Pam assured the group that the NE quadrant of the city was not meant to be touched, but Pillsbury will be demagnetized, and Sheridan will be a magnet but the district will work with the broader NE community to determine the status of that magnet program. The biggest decisions being made are about high schools. Right now there is a commitment on the Board's part to retain all 7 city high schools, and to build up Edison & North. Pam stated that the CSO changes will have less of an impact in NE than in other parts of the city.
Brenda then answered questions about changes at North High School. The "SUMA TEC Prime" program will be rolling out next year, and will require incoming students to submit an essay in order to be "admitted" to the school. North will no longer be a comprehensive community high school, but will become a rigorous, specialty school. Current students at North who are not interested in attending a school of this type will have to go elsewhere. In 2010, students will no longer be assigned to North based on residency. Several PEN members had questions about whether students who are not admitted to the new program at North will then be sent either to Edison, or perhaps sent to Patrick Henry, depending on programming and capacity issues. There was concern about whether this ends up filling Edison with students who are not necessarily choosing to be there, but simply have nowhere else to go.
Pam Costain spoke up about these concerns, emphasizing that it would be best to view the situation not as one MPS school versus another. The district is trying to improve the academic quality at all city high schools. The decision to change the program at North was made in order to keep it open, though it has dwindling attendance and, overall, the smallest high school enrollment. The district does not expect that North will ever reach the numbers of a comprehensive/community school again, so it has a special status as an alternative to closing it. The new configuration enables students from the entire City to attend North High, which is also partnering with Dunwoody Academy.
Dean DeGroot commented that a specialty program at North makes sense, but what is unclear to the NE community is where pathways to Edison exist. For example, 70% of Marcy Open school kids reside in NE, and majority of those kids continue onward to South High—the only Open high school in the District. On the other hand, most of Edison's student population is made up of kids who live in North Minneapolis at this time. Northeast Middle School (NEMS) is the only middle school feeding into Edison. How do we keep Edison viable for NE kids when a lot of them are going to Patrick Henry, St. Anthony or South High School? What can the district do with pathways to keep NE kids in NE? Sheridan (K-8) has 70%+ kids who live in North Minneapolis, and there seems to be no link between Sheridan and Edison at this time. It was understood that the "four core" standardization of the high school curricula throughout the city, as well as the district's decision not to bus students to high schools outside of their neighborhoods would decrease the need for students to opt out of their own neighborhood for primary and secondary education.
In response, Brenda asked the group for suggestions about how to create pathways to Edison. The clear concern among many PEN members was that the district was maintaining the Open magnet program at South High and was still going to bus kids from NE who attend Marcy Open to South, despite its commitment to the standardized high school curriculum it declared with the "four core" idea. This will continue to drain NE/Edison of its teenagers. With Marcy and Sheridan as magnet schools, the only community schools feeding into Edison are Waite Park and Pillsbury (via NE Middle), and currently Waite Park is losing nearly half of its 5th graders to St. Anthony.
Pamela Vertina, of Edison High School, investigated the demographics in NE by zip code and found that we just don't have enough kids in the area to fill Edison. If the district will no longer provide transportation to kids from other areas of the city to Edison, how will it be able to survive?
Dean DeGroot pointed out that new statistics from NE Middle School do show that over half of the kids who have chosen to stay in the city have chosen Edison. This is a new and positive trend - during the two previous years, Patrick Henry has received the majority of 8th graders from NEMS. However, that represents approximately 70 kids entering Edison from this only established pathway. Other pathway connections are necessary!
Julia Janousek, a Marcy Open parent, stated that the open pathway needs to exist for Marcy kids. The way to bring Marcy kids to Edison is through attraction to a vibrant Arts program. In her opinion, many parents at Marcy are not there for the Open program, but are there for other reasons. They will not be committed to sending their children to South if more appealing options become available. If Edison's reputation improves, the families who live in NE will choose it.
Brenda addressed these concerns by saying that the new IB program at Edison will keep interdisciplinary methods available to kids from Marcy who have been educated according to the Open philosophy. There is a new secondary school in Illinois that combines a Montessori and an IB program. The district is looking at that as a possibility for one of the MPS high schools in the future.
Dean suggested that from a cost-savings perspective, with the IB pathway already there from NEMS to Henry, it would make more sense to bolster AP at Edison than divide IB resources between the two high schools (Henry & Edison).
Brenda replied that the idea of the "four core" learning philosophies existing simultaneously at all six comprehensive city secondary schools is beneficial partially due to different learning styles of different students. It is best to have AP, IB, a tech program, & CIS all in the same school. Teacher training overlaps between these methods as well.
Dean questioned how realistic it might be that there would be an equal number of AP classes at all high schools, with all four of these different programs in each school?
Brenda explained that there may not be an equal number of classes, but that all of the schools would be equal in quality of curricular programming. For example, there may be different classes at different schools available, but with technology allowing students to computer stream, attend classes online, and use district-provided "go to" bus passes to get around, all students would have equal access to the same quality learning opportunities.
Jenny Arneson, Waite Park parent, asked if the Middle years IB program (MYP) is really happening at all of the city high schools. Brenda replied that the 9th/10th grade IB training to teachers is happening now. More schools are adding IB & AP state-wide, so MPS is drawing state funding from a smaller pool than in the past. However, federal stimulus money will go toward professional training in these programs.
Brenda shared recent testing results with the group. Evidently, MPS students as a whole made increases (about 6%) in reading and writing and smaller increases in math (about 2%). MPS is outpacing the state-wide testing score increases this year for the first time in a while. This is reason to be proud of the work that has been done so far. It was agreed that marketing was one of the biggest problems we now face as a district and as a neighborhood. The MYP philosophy at NEMS leading to MYP at Edison is a logical pathway. Our current challenge is in changing perceptions about Edison, but investment in MYP is a good idea regardless of whether it changes the school's image. It is good for teaching and learning.
Brenda also shared that the district was considering co-location partners at Edison and NEMS. Currently the contract alternative school, Heritage Academy (http://www.heritagetech.net/) is a likely candidate for using some of the extra space available in NE. Heritage Academy is now sharing space at Folwell. Many of the PEN membership expressed concern about promising space to a program that offered an alternative educational program, especially one that's vision includes significant growth. Will a contract-alternative or charter school sharing space with a comprehensive community school be seen as housing a competing program? Brenda brought up the fact that the New Small Schools office is currently sharing space at the district administrative building, and that the district has been looking at partnering with charter schools. Dunwoody is a charter at North, for example, and they will share athletics, busing, and the teaching staff will learn from each other and share professional development opportunities. Students may even eventually be taking courses at both schools simultaneously.
PEN members were very clear about the need for the NE community to be consulted about co-location options before any decisions were made about how our schools will be sharing space with city-wide contract alternative or charter schools. Because our biggest hurdle right now is changing perceptions about NEMS and Edison, it is essential that that image be considered while these decisions are being made. Brenda agreed that the community would be made aware, and that CSO meetings would be happening during the summer.
Vicky Iacarella offered to draft a letter to the Board and the District about these concerns, spelling out the need for the NE community to be consulted before co-location decisions are made.
Brenda stated that the district's strategy right now is to grow enrollment at Edison through marketing, community activity, raising rigor though the TAP program (IFL model), and "disciplinary literacy teams" at the district level.
The biggest debate at the Board level right now is about the Marcy Open/South pathway, according to Pam Costain. It is an issue that has not been resolved and all of the stakeholders involved feel passionately about it. The way we can attract Marcy students back from South is by building up Edison. Some would argue that Open is such a specialized educational philosophy that it needs to be a unique program, but others feel that the philosophy behind Open education should be and has been put into practice at ALL Minneapolis public schools already.
Brenda assured that, ideally, there will be IB, CIS and AP at all schools, which will mean that there will be pathways to every comprehensive community high school based on attendance boundaries, not specialty programs.
As for marketing strategies for the future, Brenda explained that as of next year, 8th graders will receive a school choice guide, featuring only their community high school. Two weeks later they get a very small packet about all the other secondary schools in the city. There is also a re-branding effort beginning this July. All web-pages will be upgraded to one MPS brand.
Other Business:
The NE School Showcase will be scheduled for sometime during the first three weeks of November.
A follow-up from last month's discussion on athletics occurred. Jenny Arneson reported that she collected names of main sports contacts in NE for the Edison Athletic Director to use in recruiting; he was present and confirmed this was his plan. While Jenny has names from the park department, NE Middle School was unable to provide many names due to vacancies - it is clear that the break-down in communication and athletic rigor is at least in part due to the lack of stability at NEMS in athletics. Padmini Udupa and Carla Steinbach, principals of NEMS & Edison respectfully, reported that they were already aware of this issue and had been developing a plan to help each other in athletics. They will have a report by next month. Dr. Udupa pointed out to Brenda that part of the difficulty for middle school students participating in high school sports is the inconsistencies in start times.
Next meeting: August 17 at a NE Park TBD.
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