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From Melissa Merrell UCPS Board of Education - District 4
Facilities Committee – January 31, 2017 Meeting
CITIZENS STUDENT REALIGNMENT UPDATE
The Facilities Committee met with Dr. McKibben Wednesday evening to discuss an Enrollment Forecast for UCPS and to inquire about his services for a possible realignment based on neighborhood schools and improved transportation. If UCPS chooses to contract his services, the work would take 12-13 months (March 2017 – March 2018) in order to roll out school assignments for the Fall of 2018. Dr. McKibben stated that this work would hold UCPS for 10+ years.
Dr. McKibben informed the Facilities Committee and Staff that he DID NOT assist UCPS or the previous Board in 2013/14 with the last Redistricting of approximately 5,800 students. The service he supplied was an updated Enrollment Forecast with geocoding data. He also reported that he was directed NOT to include Charter Schools in his 2015 Enrollment Update.
McKibben Services:
1. Calculate Building Capacity with “best practices” via Design Capacity and Operational Capacity.
2. Facilities Committee to accept applications and form the “Citizens Advisory Committee” of 2 or more citizens from each of the 9 Clusters. EX: 18+ members. This committee will need to know that this is a 1 year project that will take many hours and several meetings including Public Hearings. 68 Applications have been received to date!
3. Dr. McKibben to “Set the Criteria” for realignment with the Citizens Advisory Committee based on the following options:
• Neighborhood Schools
• Size of Building
• Number of Students
• Transportation Efficiency
• Clear feeder patterns
• Move as few students as possible
• Limiting Grandfathering
• Location of special programs (magnets, language, etc.)
• Limit our of district transfers
• Competing Institutions (private, charters, home school, etc.)
4. Draw Maps (2-3 Options from chosen criteria) & Present to the Public
5. Revise Maps based on Public Input
6. Finalize Map
7. Board of Education Vote/Approval
8. Implement New Boundaries (Fall 2018)
Dr. McKibben is considered an expert in his field with more than 30 years of experience and 15 years in private consulting in 29 states! He has consulted districts with as few as 800 students and up to 106,000 students. UCPS and the Board of Education look forward to reviewing his proposal and possibly beginning work in March. STAY TUNED!
My first thought is that a 10-year plan will really be pushing some boundaries around. Especially with the new capacity passed in the recent bond. Be careful what you wish for?
I'm also glad they plan to have 2 people per cluster on the committee so it isn't dominated by one group.
My first thought is that a 10-year plan will really be pushing some boundaries around. Especially with the new capacity passed in the recent bond. Be careful what you wish for?
I'm also glad they plan to have 2 people per cluster on the committee so it isn't dominated by one group.
technically it says "2 or more"... so there is some risk that a cluster could carry more "weight". My hope in the end is that they choose reasonable people who aren't just in it for their cluster or their neighborhood. We will see!
Update from last night's BOE meeting. They elaborated a bit more on the list I posted above, but the highlights are as follows:
- Still waiting for a proposal and cost from McKibben - won't be able to approve until March BOE meeting.
- The study will take about a year
- The study will be run by the Citizens group and McKibben with no interaction from the BOE unless the group needs information
- McKibbin said leaving the BOE out makes it more partial
- Citizens group would require ~20 hours per month for a year, they would also run public input sessions
- They opened up the applications for another week due to this new commitment explanation
- 71 applications so far I think, but some dropped out after learning of the time requirement
- The final proposal(s) would be presented to the BOE in March 2018
- Expectation is to implement for 2018-2019 school year
My editorial:
- I disagree that the citizen's group is unbiased since the BOE is picking the members.
- If they truly don't see the proposal until March 2018, they won't be able to review and vote on it until April 2018.
My editorial:
- I disagree that the citizen's group is unbiased since the BOE is picking the members.
UCPS is in charge of drafting the plans. The party not directly involved in drafting the plans should pick the members of the Citizen Advisory Committee. That is the BOE.
i luv me some christina helms, really helped me out last go around... but, she stuck her foot in her mouth big time with that comment and she's going to get called out for it. mckibben never recommended any redistricting, that's not what he was hired to do. he was hired to do a population/growth study, not a redistricting study. the BOE tried to stick the redistricting on mckibben but he talked to many parents made it clear that his report should not be used to justify redistricting. it will be interesting to see if they bring mckibben into a public setting, such as a BOE meeting, this time and get his comments on the record.
You called that one, the meeting proved you were right. This is the first I had heard this. They called her out and she said nothing in her own defense.
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