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Board tables school-assignment changes after debate over weighted lottery and rubric for specialized schools
Summary
The board tabled proposed changes to school-assignment policy 4150 to the August policy meeting after members debated removing a weighted lottery for year-round and cooperative high schools and requested the superintendent’s rubric and data.
At the July 15 policy committee meeting, members voted to table school-assignment policy 4150 until the August policy meeting after an hour of discussion about whether the district must use state criteria to prioritize applications for cooperative innovative high schools and year-round programs.
The committee’s discussion contrasted two approaches: a state-influenced, criterion-based rubric that awards points for risk indicators (used by the district’s cooperative high schools) and a desire by some members to remove a weighted lottery for certain year-round schools.
Dr. Barnes, the superintendent, explained that state law identifies target groups such as students at risk of dropping out and students whose parents did not attend postsecondary education, and that the district’s rubric awards slots to students meeting more of those criteria. “If two kids put in the application and one hits three of these criteria and one only hits one, the slots will go to the kids who hit more of the criteria,” Barnes said.
Board member Judy Justice argued the weighted system promotes socioeconomic integration and equal opportunity, citing long-standing research and local examples. “There is a definite purpose for that lottery system,” Justice said, adding that weighted lotteries had been used previously to address demographic imbalances at year-round schools.
Other members questioned whether ZIP codes or income-based measures unfairly penalize families who work hard and are not wealthy. One member said a rubric could better identify qualifying students than a ZIP-code rule and asked staff to provide the rubric and data on waiting lists: at the meeting staff reported 18 students on the waiting list for Isaac Baer and none for CTEC.
After discussion, a motion to table 4150 until the August policy meeting passed with a first and second; board members asked staff to supply the rubric and relevant data before the next meeting so the committee can consider whether to retain the weighted approach for cooperative high schools while removing it for other year-round programs.
No final policy change was adopted; the item was continued to August so members can review the superintendent’s rubric and supporting data.
