With the projected opening of the Morgan Hill School District’s
second comprehensive high school, Ann Sobrato High, just nine
months away, School Board trustees are looking at a policy to
enable students to transfer to another school.
With the projected opening of the Morgan Hill School District’s second comprehensive high school, Ann Sobrato High, just nine months away, School Board trustees are looking at a policy to enable students to transfer to another school.
Boundaries for the two high school, an issue a district committee and trustees considered for several months, with input from parents during three community forums, were decided during the Nov. 17 meeting. Trustees approved alternate 8, an option not created by the boundary committee but by district staff, trustees, parental suggestions and with modification by the district transportation department.
The modifications by transportation make the busing schedule more manageable, with students in outlying areas of the district spending less time on the bus than they would have with alternate 7.
The transfer policy is called chice placement criteria.
The main reason cited by all seven trustees for choosing alternate 8 is that is would provide students and their families with choice. A student who did not want to go to Sobrato because he or she is able to play varsity sports, for example, would have a chance to attend Live Oak High.
A group of families living within the El Toro Elementary boundary and the Martin Murphy Middle and Sobrato boundaries signed petitions addressed to the School Board to have the community included in the Live Oak boundary. These families could be served by having space at Live Oak for transfers.
Some students living within Live Oak boundaries may wish to attend the new high school.
Parents, particularly the group of El Toro families and their advocate Ruth Detmers, pointed out to trustees the need to closely consider the district’s criteria for choice. Detmers read from the district policy manual during the last boundary public forum, disclosing that lottery was the specified means for selection.
Assistant Superintendent Claudette Beaty told trustees that state law requires that if there are more students wanting to transfer than there are spaces at the school, the district will select the students by lottery.
The state Education Code states district policy “shall include a selection policy for any school that receives requests for admission in excess of the capacity of the school that ensures that selection of pupils to enroll in the school is made through a random, unbiased process that prohibits an evaluation of whether any pupil should be enrolled based upon his or her academic or athletic performance. For purposes of this subdivision, the governing board of the school district shall determine the capacity of the schools in its district. However, school districts may employ existing entrance criteria for specialized schools or programs if the criteria are uniformly applied to all applicants.”
Trustee Jan Masuda asked during the Nov. 17 meeting if there was a timeline for deciding on criteria. Beaty said she would like to see the criteria on the Dec. 15 agenda, because eighth and ninth grade students – who will be Sobrato’s and Live Oak’s ninth and tenth graders next year – will be registering for classes at the beginning of the month.
The sample criteria district staff put together for trustees to consider during their Nov. 17 meeting included “special circumstances that may be harmful or dangerous to a student, interest in specialized programs, sibling attendance, employees’ students (currently included in elementary choice/intradistrict policy), interest in particular course offerings, once enrolled a student shall not have to apply for readmission, the school of choice becomes the student’s home school until graduation.”
Trustee Shellé Thomas said she would like to add “walking distance to a school” to the list of criteria for consideration.
Trustee Del Foster said his opinion was that two policies would be necessary during the transition to two high schools.
“I believe there will be two policies, one grandfather policy and one to help us through the transition to two high schools,” he said. “The other policy will change. Some of those issues (in transition) will go away after a few years.”
The district’s plan is to add 11th grade to Sobrato in 2005 and 12th grade in 2006.
Trustees agreed to look at the criteria again at the Dec. 15 meeting. The Dec. 1 meeting was canceled.
Registration for Spanish-speaking students will be Dec. 1 at Live Oak High, with current grade 8 at 6 p.m. and current grade 9 at 7 p.m.
Students who will be attending Sobrato will register Dec. 3 at Britton Middle School, with current grade 8 at 6 p.m. and current grade 9 at 7 p.m.
Students who live within the Live Oak boundary will register Dec. 4 at Live Oak, with current grade 8 at 6 p.m. and current grade 9 at 7 p.m.
Superintendent Carolyn McKennan and Assistant Superintendent Denise Tate have both said Sobrato and Live Oak will be comprehensive high schoosl, and advanced classes and advanced placement courses will be offered at both schools.
According to Tate, “There will be athletic teams and contests, music courses, clubs and extra curricular activities at both high schools.”
