Parents Speak Out About School Assignments

(Editor's Note: Following about the school assignment process for incoming kindergarteners, many Patch users commented on the process and the overall concept of the new No Boundary policy. In a follow-up interview with Assistant Superintendent of Education Services and Personnel, Dr. Suzanne Roy, Patch has clarified some of the questions raised in the comments to the earlier story.)

In early April, families with children starting kindergarten in the in the fall were notified of their children's school assignment following the district's first enrollment period. 

On the heels of the district's policy, were made based on an algorithmic formula, in which 1) the student's home address, 2) distance to school and 3) available seats in the school, were used to determine their school in the fall.

According to , of those kindergarteners who do not have siblings already attending elementary school in the district, 95 percent of them were assigned to either their closest school (80 percent), or second closest school (15 percent).

"Our goal was to get every student into their first or second closest school," said Roy. "And placing 95 percent in their first or second closest schools is pretty good."

The assistant superintendent explained that between the 251 new kindergarteners entering the district, and the 150 kindergarteners who have sibling priority (meaning they have siblings who are currently enrolled in a school), all schools, except for Redwood Shores Elementary and Nesbit Elementary reached their capacity for kindergartners.

"Based on the board's direction, we lowered our kindergarten cap at some of the schools," said Roy. For instance, this year Fox has 100 kindergartners, but next school year that number has been lowered to 75. Cipriani will go from three kindergarten classrooms to two. This, Roy explained, is done to ensure classroom space is available as the cohort group progresses from kindergarten to fifth grade. 

"We also need to keep our class sizes at 25 for grades K-3 and 30 for grades 4-5," Roy added.

"As students progress through the grades, we have to be sure we have seats for them, which is why we need to cap the kindergarten classes now," said Roy. 

As for the current assignments of students to schools that may not be the one closest to their home, Roy says, "We have a list of those families and what assignments they got.  As spaces open up, we will re-assign students if we can."

Currently, the number of kindergarten seats assigned at each school are:

• Central 63--at capacity
• Cipriani  50--at capacity
• Fox  75--at capacity
• Sandpiper 75--at capacity
• Redwood Shores--not yet at capacity, seats available
• Nesbit--not yet at capacity, has 11 seats available

Because the cap was raised from 75 to 100 at Redwood Shores Elementary, all of the were accommodated at their closest school.

Roy said the district generally experiences a 7-10 percent no-show or withdraw rate at the kindergarten level, but often times the district does not receive that information until the beginning of the school year. There are two more enrollment periods prior to the new school year: March 1 through June 8, and June 9 through the beginning of the school year.

"Because or goal is to get every student into their closest school, as soon as we have open seats, we will start re-assigning families who were placed in their fourth closest school, then third closest, etc.," said Roy.

"We want to work with the families--but sometimes it's a wait and see," said Roy. 

(The map that accompanies this story shows the breakdown of school assignments based on kindergarteners registered by the end of the first enrollment period. Map key: 1=one K child from that residence, 2=two K children from that residence, 3=three K children from that residence; Yellow=Fox, Red=Cipriani, Blue=Cipriani, Brown=Nesbit, Green=Redwood Shores, Black=Sandpiper).