vision2020
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."
Back to TOC