Comments on: Hills schools? Not much of an Option.

By: Kindergarten enrollments at Oakland’s `hills schools’ - The Education Report - Reporter Katy Murphy’s blog on Oakland schools

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:05:42 +0000

[...] blogged in March about school assignment letters and the spike in neighborhood applications at Oakland’s high-altitude [...]

By: Public School Fan

Public School Fan — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:12:00 +0000

KIndergarten Mother:

Please make sure that you appeal this decision if that is what you wish. From all of the numbers that I have seen, it does not appear that Joaquin Miller is full and redirecting students. Everyone is human and sometimes mistakes are made. The assignment office can rectify this if it was a mistake. And if it wasn’t a mistake, then it should still be able to tell you why this assignment was made. Otherwise, you should have been assigned your neighborhood school, Joaquin Miller.

By: Kindergarten Mother

Kindergarten Mother — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:37:20 +0000

Wow, and I thought I was th only parent having problems w/OUSD. I requested Joaquin Miller for my child b/c that’s my neighborhood. My child was assigned to a school on 98th and bancroft; Reach Academy. What I don’t understand is, why did OUSD bypass all of the other schools such as Sequoia Elementary and the others in my neighborhood and enroll my child in a school that is extermely far away to my residence…can someone tell me??? Joaquin Miller was not addressed in the article, so can someone tell me if Joaquin Miller is full, and if so, why aren’t portables an option there as well…there’s more than enough room on the playground to add them? I plan on fighting the assignment for my child, b/c we should have been given 2nd priority according to the OUSD website.

By: Public School Fan

Public School Fan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:19:35 +0000

Hills Dad:
Don’t hold your breath for any boundary changes. Despite the fact that under its own policies OUSD is supposed to reevaluate school boundary areas on a consistent and continuing basis to even out demographic shifts and address both overcrowding and underenrollment, it doesn’t seem as though OUSD is at all interested in doing so. At various Bd. meetings and school community meetings over the past 5 months or so, the Interim Superintendent has publicly stated that she does not favor adjusting boundaries and would not recommend doing so.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:24:05 +0000

Concerned Parent,
This came to light during discussions of the carving and redistribution of Tilden: initially, much of the autism program was slated to go there (to join existing Pre-K autism programs), but the subcommittee backed out of that due to the $700,000 cost of installing the portables.

Point taken about the importance of parent involvement in making “good things happen”. We’ll see how that plays out in this case.

By: Hills Dad

Hills Dad — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:41:33 +0000

Elementary school slots are elementary school slots. If you have to readjust borders, do it. But all schools should be making the same sacrifices. At a time when elementary schools are overenrolled and the local middle school for Hillcrest is underenrolled, then it makes sense to free up some elementary school slots at Hillcrest and have those parents do what all the other parents who paid equally for their homes do. Slots are slots. We are going to have to change boundaries anyway. All communities have to make concessions. We should be trying to figure out how to elevate all public schools. Make space where we can, and rebuild our middle schools. You can’t do it in a vaccuum!

By: Public School Fan

Public School Fan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:41:52 +0000

Concerned Parent:

Yes, indeed, it was kind for Montclair to agree to the addition of 2 portables to accommodate its own overcrowded neighborhood schoolchildren and the redirected kids from Thornhill, a school which for 2009-10 had too many neighborhood applicants to accommodate all who applied.

It was also kind of the Bd. of Education recently to authorize spending $14 million to expand and modernize Montclair over the next three years, beginning with the addition of two portables for the next school year and eventually ending with a new 2-story building that will also house a new cafeteria. The plans are not yet set in stone, but it looks like Montclair will get some needed modernization and expansion. Why does it need expansion? Because it is bursting at the seams from its own neighborhood kids wanting to attend school there. The school needed more modernized space. The principal at Montclair has done much for that school (dynamic and creative) and the word is getting out to the neighborhood. And now it will also be able to take the overflow neighborhood kids from Thornhill who were unable to get in to that school due to space issues.

It is certainly great that Montclair will be able to take more of its own neighborhood kids should applications continue on their current rising trend and won’t need to redirect its own neighborhood kids and will also help with overcrowding from other schools in its megaboundary. But it is certainly clear that Montclair will also be gaining some much needed space and modernity from the Bd. of Education.

No redirected Hillcrest kindergartners for 2009-10 were sent to Montclair. Under OUSD regs. passed by the Bd. in June, if an elementary school is too crowded to accept all of its neighborhood and sibling kindergarten applicants and must redirect some of the children, then families get priority in the Options program only for other elementary schools in the megaboundary of the overcrowded school. Montaclair is not in the same megaboundary as Hillcrest. Thornhill, however, is in the same megaboundary as Montclair and will send its overflow there.

Hillcrest is an overcrowded school on one of the smallest campuses in OUSD. From at least 2005 until now, it has accepted more kindergartners than it has space for due to the high number of neighborhood applicants. This has resulted in the school being overcrowded. The playground space available at Montclair is incomparable to that at Hillcrest and at Thornhill. I too have attended many Bd. meetings and OUSD meetings on these issues and I have never heard any official note that there are no regs. or state code provisions that would bar portables from being placed on the playground at Hillcrest. There are all kinds of laws and regs. that need to be investigated to determine if there would be room for portables — this is true of all schools contemplating putting in portables. What I have heard at Bd. meetings is that all kinds of opportunities were being looked into by the facilities group.

By: John

John — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:28:13 +0000

Hills Dad: The logical solution is to readjust your boundaries to another school district, as I did after living in Oakland for fifty-five years and teaching there for twenty-five.

Given the faster devaluation of Oakland homes since the 1990′s you’ll likely be living in a lesser accomodation (for the same money) if you move to a superior community. However, whatever you move into I’m sure it will be a superior structure to your soap box.

My daughter has adapted well to life in a condo and excellent schools. I’m sure your kids could also adapt.

By: concerned parent

concerned parent — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:00:02 +0000

Cranky teacher– who determined that portables cost too much? The district has stated that the money for additional portables at Montclair School (and they’re keeping the 1940s portables for now as well) came from Measure B funds. Why can’t Buckhalter use that money too? Seems to be plenty of it. Is there someone at the leadership level of the school and/or an active parent community available and willing to advocate for the students to get those portables, or whatever else is needed? A squeaky wheel always helps, and seems to be what often makes a difference at a school like Montclair, Thornhill, Joaquin Miller, etc. Moreover, these “hills” schools actually end up with less $$ from the district than schools in other areas (don’t get Title 1 money, for instatnce), with fundraising and grant writing making up the difference. Something to think about…If we ALL get creative and model what the “successful” schools are doing, AND don’t take no for an answer when it comes to something like portables for Buckhalter kids, good things can happen and we all might be a bit less cranky.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:25:59 +0000

It is “generous and kind” indeed of Montclair to offer to bring in portables in order to accommodate concerned parents of Hills kindergarteners who do not want their children in any number of places that could easily accommodate them.

Consider, however, that Buckhalter was going to bring in portables to expand its autism program and offer a better continuum of services to flatlands kids with special needs, but can’t do that because portables “cost too much”.

Just another discrepancy between Horrible Horrible Flatlands Schools and Fabulous Fabulous Hills Schools. Which has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with resource allocation.