Magnet Angel

Recently families in the North Valley have been receving letters from the middle schools stating their schools had not met academic targets and were designated Program Improvement schools. I've heard from more than a few frightened parents who had no idea what that meant--their phenomenal schools of just a few months ago were now threatened with governmental takeover and the parents now had the right to move their children to different, yet-to-be-determined middle schools that did not fail the No Child Left Behind targets. Let me assure everyone that of the schools I have checked--Lawrence, Frost, Porter, Holmes and others, the issue is with one subgroup: children with disabilities. While this does not take away from the severity of the issue for this subgroup, an administrator pointed out that the schools have mainstreamed more severely disabled students in recent years and this is the challenge that all these schools face.

It would be nice if the letters that declare that a school is designated a PI school also explained what led to that designation: the entire school, specific subgroups, etc.

Since getting a transfer out of a PI school uses the same application as the Magnet application, I encouraged parents interested in banking magnet points to continue with their plans to bank points and talk to the schools directly. If they felt everything was okay for their families, stay put, or for a little extra security, get ready to plan for open enrollment which will start in April or May. I can't see parents requesting out of a school they're happy with no control over where their child will be sent.

Thankfully, I am a few years from middle school with my daughter, but feel for the parents, as it's just one more unnecessary drama in their lives.