Dear Sabin Community Members,
Please come to the Community Forum to discuss the Sabin School boundary and enrollment process. We need the voice of Sabin residents to be heard.
Thursday, January 13
6 to 8 pm
Beaumont School (4043 NE Fremont)
As a member of the Boundary Advisory Committee working on these issues, and as a Sabin Community Association board member, I encourage all Sabin residents and school community members to attend Thursday's meeting. Two options will be presented at Thursday's meeting, they are simply described by PPS as follows:
Blue Option
- Boundary change between Alameda and Sabin. As a result, Sabin receives 25 additional incoming students per year, and fewer are assigned to Alameda.
- Sabin becomes a K-5 school that feeds to Beaumont, increasing Beaumont’s neighborhood enrollment.
Orange Option
- Boundary change between Alameda and Sabin. As a result, Sabin receives 25 additional incoming students per year, and fewer are assigned to Alameda.
- Sabin remains a K-8 school, and Beaumont has a smaller neighborhood population.
The blue option would help to increase Beaumont's enrollment, which is sorely needed, but in the near term it would leave Sabin with many fewer students than it currently has, which would lead to resource cuts. A concern is that this may lead to a downward spiral for Sabin that is hard to pull out of. Therefore, it is to preserve the integrity of Sabin School in the near- and long-term as a viable and thriving school for which we must advocate. I think that two options exist to do this, either keep Sabin a K-8 or demand that PPS commit extra resources to Sabin during this "growing period" as a K-5 Please come and advocate for a strong school and a strong Sabin community.
Thank you,
Clay Veka
Sabin Community Association representative to the PPS Grant Cluster Boundary Advisory Committee
4 comments:
Thank you, rachel, for posting such a well-written and convincing analysis. Is there any chance the city will put moving ACCESS back on the table? I don't think i can attend tomorrow's meeting, unfortunately (unless there is childcare, which i doubt!), but i would love to talk to someone and find out more and mroe about what I might do to help. -- Mim (mzellnik -at- gmai -dot- com)
This process has put Sabin in such an unflattering light. I wish PPS had followed their legal obligations and made the committee selection, meetings and scenarios more open to families with preschool age or younger kids. Now we are all feeling shocked, indignant and panicky, which makes an informed analysis a challenge.
I do not want to see Sabin forced into a K-5 configuration, without its amazing art program, librarian, etc. I also do not want to see it packed with kids because there is no room for the rezoned students and Access. PPS has created this mess due to years of short-term thinking and faulty assumptions.
Its not the light; Sabin's representatives have worked in an unflattering way during this process. They have exhibited a air of entitlement without reciprocal sensitivity to the consequences to others in the process.
The School community needs to understand it is heavily subsidized by PPS and Title 1. Title 1 status is currently based primarily on transfer students' status, not the resident students'. So as Sabin continues its trend of capturing more resident students, it will naturally fall below 40% F&RL. That will reduce FTE assigned to the school, free full day kindergarten will go away, and parents will need to agreesively fund raise like so many other communities to maintain the librarian and art teacher, etc.
As a Sabin parent I agree with everything that Rachel posted. Sabin is doing amazing things and both the elementary and middle schools will continue to grow and flourish. Taking away the 6-8th grade is not the right answer.
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