But you do have the option of attending a magnet with distinctive programming but you cannot just use “school choice” to request to join your old school because your friends are there or your siblings went there.
Mike Weinard looked up the information and is correct: “while DFL endorsements can be valuable, MPS school board elections are nonpartisan, and party endorsement has no impact on ballot accessibility nor will party affiliation be displayed on ballots.
Any eligible candidate submits the requisite paperwork and either $20 or a minimum of 500 signatures during the filing period of May 19 – June 2nd will appear on the primary ballot in August. The top two vote-getters for each position in the primary will be on the general election ballot.”
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My summary:
The Comprehensive District Design passed 6-3 as expected. Every school in the district will essentially be starting over in the fall of 2021. It will be a mess. The school board and district will get to try their disrupt everything experiment.
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Below are letters to my fellow elementary school parents and middle school parents:
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Burroughs Community School Parents, so the Comprehensive District Design passed. What does that mean for you?
1. Burroughs will lose more of its capacity than any of the other 60 schools in the district. It will go from 114.4% capacity to 60.9% capacity in the fall of 2021. It will go from 738 students to 394 students. Yes, that will mean many teachers and staff will leave. Excel document: https://www.andyrowell.net/files/cdd-capacity-decline.xlsx
2. If you haven’t done so since March, look up your address and see if your pathway is still Burroughs, Justice Page Middle School, Washburn High School. For many Burroughs family, it will no longer will be that because the boundaries have changed. https://schoolrequest.mpls.k12.mn.us/cdd
3. Will your student be allowed to continue to attend Burroughs if you started there even if the boundaries say you will need to attend another school? No.
[I may be wrong. Someone pointed out this March 10 FAQ document from MPS states: “parents may choose to apply to schools outside their attendance area if there is space available and they can transport their own children.” https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fKKrltQvvcm732YNIrvVwN3QdDIOvd8I5PoNPr6TtTg/edit]
(At least that is my understanding). If you are attending a high school, you will be able to continue attending there until you graduate. But that does not apply to elementary or middle schools. (Nothing changes for this fall: 2020-2021. All the changes are scheduled for the following fall).
4. Burroughs will drop from being 23.0% students of color to 10.7%. It will be the whitest school in the district. Look up the Burroughs data at: https://www.cdd.mpls.k12.mn.us/school-info and use the gray scroll bar at the bottom center of the page to scroll right and left. That webpage does not work well on mobile.
Most schools will be changed *more* than Burroughs because 32 of the 51 elementary and middle schools will see either the grades in the building or programming or pathway will change. All 60 schools in the district will be radically changed in the fall of 2021.
Obviously, these considerations of what happens to Burroughs kids were not the key issue of whether the CDD should pass or not but you might as well know the implications now that it has passed. The Minneapolis Public Schools school board passed it 6-3 tonight. Our representative Ira Jourdain voted against it but he did not say anything in the discussion period tonight unlike all the other eight directors, which loses him points with me. Former board member Rebecca Gagnon ran and lost against him in the DFL District 6 primary that ended May 4 https://www.facebook.com/mplsdfl/photos/a.559411594115850/3094077130649271/?type=3&theater See: https://www.southwestjournal.com/news/2020-election/2020/04/online-dfl-endorsement-conventions-begin-saturday
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1. You will likely want to look up your address if you haven’t since the end of March when the final plan was released. https://schoolrequest.mpls.k12.mn.us/cdd
2. Your student will need to attend their assigned school in the fall of 2021. (Nothing changes this fall). *However, high schoolers who have started at a high school will be able to continue at whatever high school they started at.
Current 2019-2020 8th graders will be mostly unaffected by the CDD. Whatever high school they start at this fall (2020), they will be able to continue attending for all of 9-12th grade.
However, current 7th and 6th graders are likely to be affected themselves or have their friends affected by this massive change in the district.
– Will your current 6th grade student be allowed to continue to attend Justice Page in 8th grade if they started there even if the boundaries say they will need to attend another school? No. [I may be wrong. Someone pointed out this March 10 FAQ document from MPS states: “parents may choose to apply to schools outside their attendance area if there is space available and they can transport their own children.” https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fKKrltQvvcm732YNIrvVwN3QdDIOvd8I5PoNPr6TtTg/edit]
– Will your current 7th grader be able to attend Washburn in the fall of 2021 with all of their friends from Justice Page even though their address specifies elsewhere? No. [I may be wrong. Someone pointed out this March 10 FAQ document from MPS states: “parents may choose to apply to schools outside their attendance area if there is space available and they can transport their own children.” https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fKKrltQvvcm732YNIrvVwN3QdDIOvd8I5PoNPr6TtTg/edit]
The only Minneapolis Public Schools option for a middle schooler besides attending your community school as specified by the boundaries is attending a magnet middle school, which has distinct programming.
2. The feeder schools into Justice Page will change for the fall of 2021. Again, nothing changes for this fall 2020. Burroughs, and Hale/Field (now K-5), Barton, and Lyndale will feed into Justice Page. Green Central will no longer be a Community School and will become a Spanish Dual Language Magnet K-5 School. It will feed into Andersen Dual Language Middle School and Roosevelt High School. However, the children who were previously directed to Green Central will now be split between Barton and Lyndale so they could still attend Justice Page. Again, check your address: https://schoolrequest.mpls.k12.mn.us/cdd
3. Justice Page is projected to grow from 842 students to 1022 students. It will be at 105.4% capacity, which is the third highest capacity of any school in the district besides Emerson and Green Central. Yes, a couple teachers have spoken up publicly with concerns to the district and school board about how this many students will fit at Justice Page but those concerns have been ignored thus far. Look up the Justice Page data at: https://www.cdd.mpls.k12.mn.us/school-info and use the gray scroll bar at the bottom center of the page to scroll right and left. That webpage does not work well on mobile.
4. All 60 schools in the district will be radically changed in the fall of 2021.
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From what I understand there is no more School Choice in the sense of choosing a community school other than the one for your address.
If they would have had a grandfathering in policy where you could continue in your same school, people would not be freaking out as much. The district officials congratulate themselves on their generosity for allowing high schoolers to finish at the school where they started.
Here is the current School Choice website: https://schoolrequest.mpls.k12.mn.us/
In the future, you will only be able to go to your community school (decided by your address) or to choose a magnet (with specialized programming).
Open Enrollment is when you live outside of Minneapolis but want to attend school in Minneapolis:
https://
High schoolers will be able to continue in the fall of 2021 whatever school they started in 2020-2021. In other words, current 2019-2020 8th graders are not affected by the CDD.