More transfers of students possible after start of school
At least 58 of the 103 high school students who have requested transfers from either Live Oak High to the new Sobrato High, or vice versa, will be able to start school Aug. 24 at the school of their choice.
Morgan Hill School Board trustees Monday night voted 5-0 – Trustee Del Foster was absent – to approve what is basically a swap between the two schools of 29 students each.
Sobrato High is opening this year with 9th and 10th grade students. The school will expand a grade next year and the next, until it is a 9-12 school.
Live Oak High will return to being a four-year program when it opens this year, for the first time in approximately 25 years. It had been a three-year senior high.
For a variety of reasons, many students within the Sobrato boundary have asked to transfer to Live Oak.
At Monday’s meeting, district officials released the numbers: Of the 103 transfer requests they had received to date.
Of a total of 74 transfer requests, 23 were future 9th graders and 51 were future 10th graders. Of the requests to transfer to Sobrato, 13 were from 9th graders and 16 were from 10th graders. A total of 29 requested to move to Sobrato.
Trustee Shellé Thomas said during Monday’s meeting that she wanted to do more. She asked to amend the motion to transfer 29 from each school to include the stipulation that when school begins Aug. 24, the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, as well as the district, would conduct a “hot body count,” and if spaces were available for other students at the two high schools, then they would be moved by the end of the month.
A hot body count involves a representative from each site going from classroom to classroom and counting students.
“If we’re below capacity the first week, then we have some mechanism in place,” said Thomas. “I’m trying to take the second step.”
Thomas was forced to withdraw her amendment, however, when MHFT President Donna Foster, as well as Sobrato and Live Oak Principals Rich Knapp and Nick Boden, said it would not be possible to have the students moved in that time.
“You can’t do it in four days,” Knapp said. “You have to call and confirm, and then they may be on vacation. Some students don’t return until after Labor Day.”
When boundaries were drawn up for the two high schools last fall, it was a lengthy process that involved the public as well as a boundary committee. Strong emotion was also part of the process, as parents were vocal in expressing their disapproval of boundary plans that required their children to attend a school not of their choice.
In order to mitigate the fallout and satisfy as many parents as possible, trustees discussed allowing all students who wanted to transfer the option to do so.
In December, students registered at their home schools, then in January, the district opened its choice placement period, during which time students who requested a transfer from one high school to the other were granted their request.
The placement period ended March 1.
Since the end of the choice placement period, the district has received 103 requests for transfers, and they have been put on a waiting list. The 58 transfers the board approved Monday night will come from this list.
Several parents have told trustees that the district itself is the reason they are on that list.
One family told trustees their son had received a letter from his teacher recommending him for the computer academy program at Live Oak High, and the information they received from the district indicated he would be transferred to Live Oak. They also told trustees they received conflicting answers from district personnel.
“My biggest frustration is that we have a policy that we have to work at defining and communicating, and unfortunately along the way, mistakes have been make and students are suffering, no matter how inadvertent the mistakes were,” Thomas said.
Some of the parents who addressed the board Monday night also had special circumstances which prompted them to request transfers; others were requesting transfers because an older sibling already attends the requested school or for transportation issues.
Boardwatcher Mark Sparacino told trustees he was not there to speak on behalf of his daughter, but for other students.
“My daughter … got the placement we had hoped for,” he said. “This issue has taken a familiar turn … he most recent version is no clear policy, no one knows who has the responsibility. I’ll be happy to see the issue decided tonight, if somewhat too late … Please take action tonight so parents can make plans.”
