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Re: School District Issues & Discussion



It is also true that it is the district that defines the term "transfers
out" and can assign students into that category willy-nilly.

John Danahy
jdanahy@turbonet.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Curley" <curley@turbonet.com>
To: "'Vision2020'" <vision2020@moscow.com>
Cc: <efisk@sd281.k12.id.us>; <verdall@sd281.k12.id.us>
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 9:04 AM
Subject: 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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