Can'thavenuthingood
Member
Government again just cannot leave things alone. Too many Administrators in the Education system. Unless its pointed out to them, the kids don't care or don't even notice. But noooooooo, we have to point out everyones differences and create more jobs and kingdoms.
Drives me nuts, I thought California was in the lead for idiocy.
Vick
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http://www.startribune.com/332/story/304037.html
StarTribune.com
Last update: March 14, 2006 – 10:42 AM
Schools must share the diversity
Two District 196 elementary schools deemed "racially isolated" might not be recognizable in a few years. The district is floating ideas such as magnet programs and new boundaries to even out minority enrollment.
Emily Johns, Star Tribune
At the front door of Cedar Park Elementary in Apple Valley, a colorful mural dubs the school the "Cedar Park School of Diversity."
The mural, painted by fourth-grade students, has five people of different races saying "hello" in different languages. A sign over a painting of the school says "Welcome"; in the background are a rainbow, a snowmobile and balloons.
Cedar Park is the most diverse school in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district, with 43 percent minority enrollment among its 580 students. Translators attend parent conferences, a cultural family liaison to works with students, and the school newsletter is published in English and Spanish.
The "School of Diversity," though, has to change. The state has identified Cedar Park and Glacier Hills, another District 196 elementary school, as "racially isolated," giving the district three years and $3 million a year to come up with a plan to even out minority enrollment.
Cedar Park already has benefited from an influx of $500,000, which more than doubled the school's annual budget and allowed it to hire 20 new staff members for this school year. The money requires the school to work with district officials to lower the percentage of minority students and keep programming to draw other students, while changing the identity of the school.
"I don't think any of the kids see each other, or point out, 'you're brown,' or 'you're black,' " said Angie Olson, an English as a second language teacher at Cedar Park. One-fifth of the students at Cedar Park have a native language other than English, and Olson said students speak languages as diverse as Vietnamese, Russian, Spanish, Korean, Sudanese, Arabic and more.
"I guess we're all just used to seeing different colored faces at Cedar Park." Olson said.
Integration ideas
Cedar Park and Glacier Hills are defined as racially isolated because the percentage of minority students at the schools -- 43 and 37, respectively -- is at least 20 percentage points higher than the district average of 16 percent. Thomas Lake Elementary, near Cedar Park, has only 17 percent minority students, in contrast.
A district committee has spent the past few weeks presenting to the school board ideas for how to integrate the schools.
Proposals for Cedar Park all involve the Cedar-Knowles mobile home park, a densely-populated area with 158 Cedar Park students. The district would have incoming kindergartners from that area attend Greenleaf, Thomas Lake or Diamond Path elementary schools, and first-graders could attend any of those or Cedar Park.
The requirement would be limited to the oldest child in a family to prevent the breaking of any bonds families have already formed with schools, officials say.
Cedar Park should pull students from other parts of the district, too, and that's why it has hired new staff, lowered the student-teacher ratio to 19-to-1, and added Spanish and art classes. The school is nearing capacity, but enrollment will drop as some minority students are sent to other elementary schools.
"[The desegregation money] has just been almost a dream," said Cedar Park principal Marge Gruenes, who has seen the minority population jump from 19 percent to 43 percent in her 16 years at the school. "There's no question that it's impacted us greatly in support of our kids."
Proposals for integrating Glacier Hills include turning the school into a magnet school or adding magnet programs for the fall of 2007. That would include changing attendance boundaries so students in Glacier Hills' attendance area who aren't interested in the magnet programs would go to another school.
Parent choice
Busing students to different schools on the basis of race alone is illegal, according to Jane Berenz, district director of federal and state rule implementation. Berenz said district officials are concentrating on one idea while forming a an integration plan: Parent choice.
Parents like to have a say in their child's education, she said, and that's why the district has spent the past month surveying parents about what magnet options would prompt them to send their child to a different school.
It's still to early to tell what the survey results are, but Gruenes said schools such as Cedar Park are going to have to look carefully at what parents say and find how to adapt, perhaps permanently changing the fabric of the schools.
"We're working on being open to and responding to what the community wants," Gruenes said. "Our job is here, with these kids, and we're just going to take away any barriers we have to make sure their day is packed with learning."
Emily Johns • 612-673-7460
©2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
Drives me nuts, I thought California was in the lead for idiocy.
Vick
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.startribune.com/332/story/304037.html
StarTribune.com
Last update: March 14, 2006 – 10:42 AM
Schools must share the diversity
Two District 196 elementary schools deemed "racially isolated" might not be recognizable in a few years. The district is floating ideas such as magnet programs and new boundaries to even out minority enrollment.
Emily Johns, Star Tribune
At the front door of Cedar Park Elementary in Apple Valley, a colorful mural dubs the school the "Cedar Park School of Diversity."
The mural, painted by fourth-grade students, has five people of different races saying "hello" in different languages. A sign over a painting of the school says "Welcome"; in the background are a rainbow, a snowmobile and balloons.
Cedar Park is the most diverse school in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district, with 43 percent minority enrollment among its 580 students. Translators attend parent conferences, a cultural family liaison to works with students, and the school newsletter is published in English and Spanish.
The "School of Diversity," though, has to change. The state has identified Cedar Park and Glacier Hills, another District 196 elementary school, as "racially isolated," giving the district three years and $3 million a year to come up with a plan to even out minority enrollment.
Cedar Park already has benefited from an influx of $500,000, which more than doubled the school's annual budget and allowed it to hire 20 new staff members for this school year. The money requires the school to work with district officials to lower the percentage of minority students and keep programming to draw other students, while changing the identity of the school.
"I don't think any of the kids see each other, or point out, 'you're brown,' or 'you're black,' " said Angie Olson, an English as a second language teacher at Cedar Park. One-fifth of the students at Cedar Park have a native language other than English, and Olson said students speak languages as diverse as Vietnamese, Russian, Spanish, Korean, Sudanese, Arabic and more.
"I guess we're all just used to seeing different colored faces at Cedar Park." Olson said.
Integration ideas
Cedar Park and Glacier Hills are defined as racially isolated because the percentage of minority students at the schools -- 43 and 37, respectively -- is at least 20 percentage points higher than the district average of 16 percent. Thomas Lake Elementary, near Cedar Park, has only 17 percent minority students, in contrast.
A district committee has spent the past few weeks presenting to the school board ideas for how to integrate the schools.
Proposals for Cedar Park all involve the Cedar-Knowles mobile home park, a densely-populated area with 158 Cedar Park students. The district would have incoming kindergartners from that area attend Greenleaf, Thomas Lake or Diamond Path elementary schools, and first-graders could attend any of those or Cedar Park.
The requirement would be limited to the oldest child in a family to prevent the breaking of any bonds families have already formed with schools, officials say.
Cedar Park should pull students from other parts of the district, too, and that's why it has hired new staff, lowered the student-teacher ratio to 19-to-1, and added Spanish and art classes. The school is nearing capacity, but enrollment will drop as some minority students are sent to other elementary schools.
"[The desegregation money] has just been almost a dream," said Cedar Park principal Marge Gruenes, who has seen the minority population jump from 19 percent to 43 percent in her 16 years at the school. "There's no question that it's impacted us greatly in support of our kids."
Proposals for integrating Glacier Hills include turning the school into a magnet school or adding magnet programs for the fall of 2007. That would include changing attendance boundaries so students in Glacier Hills' attendance area who aren't interested in the magnet programs would go to another school.
Parent choice
Busing students to different schools on the basis of race alone is illegal, according to Jane Berenz, district director of federal and state rule implementation. Berenz said district officials are concentrating on one idea while forming a an integration plan: Parent choice.
Parents like to have a say in their child's education, she said, and that's why the district has spent the past month surveying parents about what magnet options would prompt them to send their child to a different school.
It's still to early to tell what the survey results are, but Gruenes said schools such as Cedar Park are going to have to look carefully at what parents say and find how to adapt, perhaps permanently changing the fabric of the schools.
"We're working on being open to and responding to what the community wants," Gruenes said. "Our job is here, with these kids, and we're just going to take away any barriers we have to make sure their day is packed with learning."
Emily Johns • 612-673-7460
©2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.