Schools - Gilpin, Nederland, or Coal Creek?

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Bagz

Sorry it took so long to reply.

Boulder Schools have been on the cutting edge in not allowing military recruiters on the school grounds and they required students to see a speaker who encouraged the students to participate in sex and to use illegal drugs. Boulder High School - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I also remember issues on the news about teachers pushing a liberal agenda and students who voiced opinions getting lower grades. Sorry but I don't remember the exact details of these events.
The University of Colorado has been accused of this, but I've never heard of BVSD supposedly doing so.

When confronted about the issues the school board backed the teachers and criticized the media outlets that brought the issues to public attention.
In the Conference on World Affairs issue, the school board expressed displeasure at the teacher who required students to attend, and made a policy to make such sessions "optional". I read the entire transcript, and it wasn't *that* bad, not as bad as the media made it sound.

Personally I am not a conservative, so I don't want do get into a debate over these issues, but I am an advocate for vouchers and school choice.

There is plenty of choice in Colorado in general and in the BVSD in particular. Some 40% of BVSD students open-enroll. BVSD has a very liberal policy towards open-enrollment.

[Bagz]

Originally Posted by Katiana

There is plenty of choice in Colorado in general and in the BVSD in particular. Some 40% of BVSD students open-enroll. BVSD has a very liberal policy towards open-enrollment.

Open enrollment is great. The ultimate would be if you could open enroll your kids out of public schools (that actually encourage kids to have sex and do illegal drugs - I read the transcript too and heard the tone of the speech) and into accountable private schools.

[suzco]

Originally Posted by Bagz

Open enrollment is great. The ultimate would be if you could open enroll your kids out of public schools (that actually encourage kids to have sex and do illegal drugs - I read the transcript too and heard the tone of the speech) and into accountable private schools.

A discussion best left to the Politics and Other Controversies forum. Please post about these issues there.

[TropicanaRose]

Originally Posted by Katiana

There is plenty of choice in Colorado in general and in the BVSD in particular. Some 40% of BVSD students open-enroll. BVSD has a very liberal policy towards open-enrollment.

This is really changing. No one should move into BVSD and count on open enrolling.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by TropicanaRose

This is really changing. No one should move into BVSD and count on open enrolling.

I agree that no one should move into BVSD and count on open-enrolling, especially in a specific school. The stats for OE for this school year are:

Elementary 29%; Kindergarten as a subset of elementary 31%
Middle School 36%
High School 30%

Open Enrollment Matrices

This does not include students who attend private schools, just those who go to public schools either within or outside the district.

Unlike St. Vrain Valley SD, at BVSD, once a student open enrolls, the OE school becomes the student's home school and s/he is garanteed a spot there until s/he ages out (e.g. finishes elementary or middle school or graduates from high school). St. Vrain only guarantees OE for one year at a time, so that if the school becomes overcrowded b/c of an increase in students in the attendance area, the OE students can be sent back to their neighborhood schools. All school districts will close schools to OE if they become overcrowded. So, to reiterate, OE is not a sure thing, but BVSD's policy is one of the more liberal in the state. Something new in OE preferences for this coming year is that children of employees of the district (1/2 time or greater) are given some preference in the lottery.

[TropicanaRose]

Last year, 75% of students were offered their first choice school. This year, only 50% got their first choice school. There was a 14% increase in requests for open enrollment this year.

BVSD is also, for the first time, not open enrolling siblings. It was the parents responsibility to understand that such a policy was in place, but BVSD has not done that in the past. The current board hates open enrollment. They want to make it as difficult as they can for people to open enroll.

For many families, school is the number one priority. BVSD is chock full of great schools. We have terrific charters, and many wonderful neighborhood schools. On the other hand, there are a few schools that I wouldn't want my children to attend under any circumstances. One of them is rated "excellent." I really dislike the whole tone of the school!

I feel for people that are moving here and don't have the ability to visit each school, or to have their ear to the ground here. My purpose in this discussion of open enrollment is not to cause undue alarm. I would imagine that the majority of neighborhood schools will work for the majority of people- but not for everyone. I think it is important for people to know that they cannot and should not rely on open enrollment. It's my opinion that most families don't need open enrollment, but each family needs to make their own decision about that.



I had a very interesting conversation with somebody in the St. Vrain district the other day. My very good friend moved to Prospect, DH is considering a move to Niwot, so I wanted do a little checking. One of the things that we discussed at length was Open enrollment. My friend had been counting on open enrolling to Niwot Elementary, and when I told her about the yearly re-evaluation she was pretty concerned.

St. Vrain first confirmed that the yearly re-evaluation is their policy. They were open, frank, and clear about the policy. However, they seem to be much more supportive of open enrollment than BVSD. They said they want families to be happy with their schools, and most of all, to avoid disruption to the students. They close a school to new open enrollment when the school is at 95% capacity, so that they are not in the position of having to throw out students who are already open enrolled. I was very impressed with the straightforward answers I received, and found it pretty refreshing.

My friend, after checking out Niwot and Burlington, actually found that she liked Burlington better. It's a good reminder that test scores aren't everything, and that nothing beats visiting the school and meeting the administrators, teachers, and other parents.

[Katiana]

http://www2.bvsd.org/openenrollment/...Procedures.pdf

The open-enrollment process, including preferences for the lottery, is described in the above link. Siblings still get preference, but no one is guarnateed an open-enrollment slot. The local paper made a big splash about a sibling of a currently open-enrolled student at a neighborhood elementary school who was not accepted, in its never-ending quest to sell more papers. That situation is not the norm.

It is not true that the current BVSD school board hates open enrollment. Of BVSD's 55 schools, 12 depend entirely on Open Enrollment and two others have OE focus schools within their buildings.

As St. Vrain only guarantees OE for a year at a time, it is indeed possible for an OE to not be renewed if the school is at 95% capacity due to increase in neighborhood population.

[TropicanaRose]

Originally Posted by Katiana

http://www2.bvsd.org/openenrollment/...Procedures.pdf

The open-enrollment process, including preferences for the lottery, is described in the above link. Siblings still get preference, but no one is guarnateed an open-enrollment slot. The local paper made a big splash about a sibling of a currently open-enrolled student at a neighborhood elementary school who was not accepted, in its never-ending quest to sell more papers. That situation is not the norm.

It is not true that the current BVSD school board hates open enrollment. Of BVSD's 55 schools, 12 depend entirely on Open Enrollment and two others have OE focus schools within their buildings.

As St. Vrain only guarantees OE for a year at a time, it is indeed possible for an OE to not be renewed if the school is at 95% capacity due to increase in neighborhood population.

We are going to have to agree to disagree. I have a school aged child and one incoming soon, and have many other little relatives attending school in BVSD. I spend a lot of time networking with other parents, talking with teachers, etc. I also hear quite a bit through family members that worked for BVSD and friends that still do. I stand by my position that no one should count on open enrolling, and that BVSD officials have embarked on a course of doing what they can to limit open enrollment.

Indeed, the BVSD policy re: siblings didn't change, but the enforcement did. I have some sympathy for the parents, but as I said before, they had the responsibility to know the policy and make a choice about the risk. Just as St. Vrain families must take OE with the knowledge that they might lose their spot. I believe I posted about that in an earlier thread.

[Katiana]

I think we have some points of agreement.

I agree that no one should count on open enrollment. If it is extremely important for your child to go to a certain school, the best way to inusre that is to move into that neighborhood. That said, I think one might be pleasantly surprised at the quality of some of the less touted schools.