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RE: School District Issues & Discussion



Not suprisingly the district HAS reviewed the 
circumstances and as much as possible (some 
folks leave without a "forwarding address" so to 
speak) DOES know where the enrollment has 
gone.  The short answer is that the majority 
have left the area, not transferred elsewhere 
locally. For example, in '00-'01, 169 of 198 
"transfers out" were students who left the district 
altogether. There was a public presentation of 
this information at a school board meeting.  
Some of the data appears at the district website 
(sd281.k12.id.us--click "inside msd," click 
"general information,"  click 
"enrollment/dropout").  The data that is NOT 
there is that which shows how many students 
have transferred INTO the district from various 
sources.  The NET change in number of students 
who have transferred in and out of what we 
usually call district schools (charter schools ARE 
district schools by state law) to and from other 
local options (charters, home school, Logos, St. 
Marys, and others) is a VERY small percentage 
of the enrollment loss over the last 5 or 6 years.
It is convenient to link enrollment decline with a 
charge that the district isn't doing a good job, but 
the data does not support that argument (yes, 
yes, I hasten to add that this does NOT prove the 
district IS doing a good job--just that one must 
use some other data to support that assertion.)

Mike Curley


On 15 May 02, at 17:00, Tim Kinkeade wrote:

Date forwarded: 	Wed, 15 May 2002 17:06:46 -0700 (PDT)
From:           	"Tim Kinkeade" <kinkeade@moscow.com>
To:             	"Dale Courtney" <dmcourtn@moscow.com>,
  	"'Vision2020'" <vision2020@moscow.com>
Subject:        	RE: School District Issues & Discussion
Date sent:      	Wed, 15 May 2002 17:00:07 -0700
Forwarded by:   	vision2020@moscow.com

MessageHi Dale & all,
Thanks for providing excerpts from the Lewiston
Tribune article.  For the sake of clarification, I
never asked "where are the kids going?". 
However,
I did suggest we find out "why" they are going 
and
I was surprised to see Mr.. Beauchamps ask the
same question in his interview with the LMT.
Certainly enrollment has the propensity to ebb 
and
flow.  I am confident that it will level off and
eventually regain some ground.  If there are
changes that the district can make to slow the
erosion of enrollment I would like to see those
changes implemented. Tim Kinkeade

 -----Original Message-----
From: Dale Courtney [mailto:dmcourtn@moscow.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 3:17 PM To:
'Vision2020' Subject: RE: School District Issues &
Discussion


  Tim Kinkeade wrote:
  > I am interested in the agenda of my opponent
  in Tuesday's > school board election.
  Unfortunately that agenda has yet to > be made
  clear.  I encourage my opponent to make his
  positions > clear on the issues we face,
  including configuration, > facilities, budgetary
  matters and erosion of enrollment.

  This from today's LM Tribune. For copyright
  reasons, I'm only using a few
excerpts. The entire article can be found in
today's paper. This is Beaucamp's stated agenda:



--------------------------------------------------
-------------------------- --
  [Kinkeade] wants to improve communication
  between the district and the
community and "begin dialoguing on the issue of
eroding enrollment."

  [Beauchamp] says the exodus from the public
  schools is no mystery and
accuses his opponent of insipid "Dilbertisms" that
make no sense.

  An example:

  "We need to know why our district has suffered
  loss of students and we
need to begin a discussion on how to stabilize and
rebuild the enrollment," says Kinkeade, owner of
Advantage America Mortgage Co., in a news release.

  "I'm surprised there isn't already a task force
  out there charged with,
'Where are they going?' ... and how can we market
ourselves as a positive educational experience for
all children?"

  That's the kind of statement, says Beauchamp,
  that shows his opponent is
big on platitudes but not fit to represent the
community on the school board.

  "I'm not making a mockery of the system,"
  Beauchamp says, "but I certainly
am thinking this is a really funny debate.

  "I can't believe that Tim would just open
  himself up like that saying we
need to know where our students are. ... If
they're (Kinkeade and the school board) honest
with themselves they know where the students are
-- they're in other schools!"

  ...

  Kinkeade, who is active on a number of community
  committees and task
forces, says he is convinced the quality of
education at Moscow is top-rate, proven by
students' grades and test scores.

  ...

  Beauchamp, on the other hand, says public
  schools have a monopoly and an
unfair advantage over private schools that must
fund themselves without tax dollars.

  "And yet (public school) population is declining
  and enrollment in these
other schools is increasing.

  "There are lots of different reasons, but it's
  mainly because of the
quality of education."

  If he were elected to the school board,
  Beauchamp says, he would begin by
asking parents why they have taken their children
out of public schools.

  "I'd like to find out why these other schools
  are flourishing so well and
why people are going to them.

  "There are lots of other services offered to the
  world that are
market-driven in a market-driven society. But even
when the product is free (as in public education),
people aren't going to it.

  "On the other hand, people are going to Logos (a
  private Christian school
in Moscow) even if they have to pay for it."






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