Hillcrest Enrollment Planning

Draft Minutes of Long Range Planning Committee Meeting

July 24, 2007

Meeting convened at 7 p.m.

Present: Tom DaSilva, Sally Ann Friedman, Lovella Barney, Claudia Staniford, Barbara Buswell, Steven Raphael, Jose Blackorby, Eric Abrams, Neal Finkelstein, Shannon Broome

Review of minutes from 7/10 (now posted on web); minutes will be approved at the next meeting.

Subcommittee Reports

Best Practices Subcommittee: Still trying to pursue information on year round schooling. Also seeking accurate info about site at bottom of Broadway Terrace and Broadway (Far West). Speculation about mixed messages regarding this site and whether the district is using it.

Action Item: Best practices subcommittee will try to get a tour of the facility to at least understand what the site's capacity is.

Regarding communication, the Best Practices Subcommittee intends to find letters and website information that we can include in the report as examples of how to ensure potential incoming students understand the odds of being admitted to their neighborhood school, what other options are available, what the process is when a neighborhood school has demand that exceeds capacity, etc. Suggested places to look at are Danville, Albany schools (Ocean View, Marin, etc.), Piedmont – all of which divert students to nearby schools.

Demand Subcommittee:

We reviewed the early results of the pre-k survey which help to establish a lower bound that can be refined. The lower bound number could have greater certainty if we do a little more work. Right now roughly one-third of homes have survey data collected.

One member of Committee expressed a goal of being able to understand if the problem is small medium or large. Suggestion that this work would be less helpful if we cannot define the overall magnitude of the issue – recognizing that there will always be uncertainties. We want this report to help rising 4 and 5 year old kid families understand what their planning should be in terms of picking other schools in the options program or applying to private school. Recognition that we might need to express the uncertainty but saying 50% likelihood of a large problem is far more helpful than saying nothing at all on magnitude.

Suggestion that the three large classes in a row, everybody staying, etc. gives us some way to bound the uncertainty. Need to recognize that only a third of homes have data and that data is nonrandom. If it were random, this member suggests that there are more kids here than there were in the past.

Ways to deal with uncertainty must be considered, such as imposing an early enrollment date for Hillcrest compared to other Oakland schools – i.e., families would need to apply to Hillcrest by November 1 or not be eligible for the next school year. Just a suggestion – creates communication issues.

Supply Subcommittee:

They last met on Tuesday as a group. Modeling is available to look at different assumed attrition levels. With various attrition estimates in place, the maximum Hillcrest enrollment capacity is 331 students. Ideal K enrollment is 42 students in an incoming K class with a NTE upper bound of 45.

Problem with the modeling is that it is all based on attrition rate estimates which are just guesses. In addition, as of 2013 there is a very large middle school, given the current incoming K, that will have to be dealt with by adding an extra middle school class temporarily and it is unclear where that would be.

Idea was suggested of giving not only an incoming K cap but a grade by grade cap. In this way, if someone leaves, another neighborhood child can be admitted. This is consistent with the way some other Oakland schools manage enrollment. Goal is for rules for priority entering K are stated and if a child is not admitted at K or his/her parents choose another school at K, there is a chance for that child to attend later if there is space under the cap (i.e., if a child moves, another child could get in). There would need to be a list of priority and it would need to be maintained and transparent.

Concern about whether district would follow such a plan even if adopted when a crisis arose or if the district would just let everyone in. Suggestion that changes are going on at the district and that there is reason to hope district staff will be able to follow policies that they set up. This assumes the district would establish a policy like this. All of this could be accomplished with centralized control of enrollment at the district. It just needs to be clear – whomever is responsible for managing it.

Query regarding whether this cap approach eliminates or substitutes for redistricting. Suggestion that recommendations on redistricting could occur in parallel with recommendations on dealing with enrollment demand until redistricting occurs. Query about using district bond money to build a new building at Hillcrest. One committee member explained that the most recent bond measure for facility funding required the facilities that would receive the money. Hillcrest was not identified in that measure and the money cannot legally be reallocated to Hillcrest. This means that although there is money in the district for buildings, it cannot be spent at Hillcrest and a new bond measure would be required before Hillcrest could receive money.

Query from one member as to what is the most creative way that this committee has explored to use every square inch of the school in the best way. Response from Supply Subcommittee that every inch is being used and more. The limiting factor is the playground which cannot accommodate any more kids. In addition, we already are exceeding the density requirements for new construction – these are the requirements that are intended to give children space to breathe and work. If you can put children in a room, that's one thing but can they learn? Can they write? The proposal of 331 as a maximum number is already. Concern expressed from teaching community about ability to teach students – cannot simply look at dimensions. The existing space is already far smaller than any conventional middle school and it cannot be loaded further. Concerns about where students store their books. Students in middle school want lockers but can't have them and have to lug heavy backpacks everywhere they go. They cannot leave books at school because there is nowhere to put them.

Comment from teaching community that if you add 3 students to a classroom, you are compromising a lot. You are compromising learning. Three sounds like a small number but it is huge when you are trying to teach children.

Additional discussion of redistricting. Concern about impacting Chabot. Suggestion that redistricting could be directed solely at Kaiser since it is only taking 10% neighborhood kids. Would the district consider turning Kaiser into a neighborhood (i.e., Upper Rockridge) school? Might need to redistrict all the Hills schools at once. Desire to see what happens in the district's current reallocation process.

One possible suggestion is to recommend temporary redrawing of lines until 2010 and then redraw again if the problem turns out to be smaller or larger than anticipated.

When is our report due? Early September
Need to start working. Tentative outline of report discussed but will change as appropriate as it is written.

Tentative Outline
I. Introduction
II. Selection of Members
III. Process for Gathering Information and Developing Report
IV. Values and Principles
V. Findings
VI. Recommendations
VII. Conclusion

Shannon will draft outline and circulate with assignments. We will try to have draft findings done by the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned.