When a charter school hoping to attract low-income students failed to get the green light by the Juneau Board of Education earlier this year, a legal discussion began \u2013 can more poor students legally be anyone\u2019s goal?<\/p>\n
Ultimately, after a consultation with City and Borough of Juneau Attorney Amy Mead, the answer was no. Because of random versus weighted lottery requirements, what Summit STEM Charter School developers wanted to do would not work. This analysis, however, presented unsettling information to the board \u2014 perhaps the weighted lottery at current district-optional programs might also not be legal.<\/p>\n
The Juneau School District\u2019s ability to meet the parameters under state and federal regulations was in part the work session topic during Tuesday\u2019s board meeting. Board member Barbara Thurston said Mead has been asked to further review current lottery measures \u2014 a weighted process that gives preference in enrollment when more families apply than spots available \u2014 to check if the board is legally required to make alterations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut before we can start tweaking these rules \u2026 we need to confirm our goals,\u201d Thurston said.<\/p>\n
According to the JSD approved \u201cPlacement Procedure for Optional Programs:\u201d The composition of the student body participating in district-wide educational option programs should reflect the percentages of students enrolled in the District\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Thurston presented a demographic breakdown for the three optional programs \u2013 the Montessori Borealis School; Juneau Community Charter School; and the Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy Program \u2014 in comparison to the districtwide demographics for similar grade levels.<\/p>\n
In all \u201cdiversity categories\u201d \u2014 English language learners, free or reduced lunch students and special education students \u2014 the Montessori and charter schools had lower than average numbers, which goes against the initial district goal.<\/p>\n
At TCLL, the special education and free or reduced lunch populations are greater than the district averages.<\/p>\n
The questions before the board: Should all three of these program work toward one diversity goal, or should it be based on the program\u2019s individual goals, and what are they legally allowed to do?<\/p>\n
Lead teacher for the Juneau Community Charter School Cynthia McFeeters said she also isn\u2019t sure what the goals legally can be, but diversity is certainly what she hopes for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we want,\u201d McFeeters said. \u201cWe totally want that as a school and we want to strive for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
McFeeters acknowledged an existing barrier is misinformation. Some families may not be aware the Montessori and charter schools are public schools, therefore free to attend if accepted, and that bus transportation is guaranteed regardless of distance from the building.<\/p>\n
The school board is now trying to answer a question of its own: Is diversity what it should continue to strive for? Furthering assessment of these goals and steps to achieve them is on the docket for each board member as they continue to move forward with this discussion. Input from the public is another component members said they await.<\/p>\n
Legislative priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n Board Vice President Andi Story presented a first reading of the Juneau Legislative Delegation and the Alaska Legislature priorities for legislative action to \u201censure quality education.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those goals includes a call for reliable and efficient service by the Alaska Marine Highway System, preserving Alaska Native language and culture by supporting immersion charter school funding and increasing the Base Student Allocation. A $50 increase to the current BSA could mean a $12 million investment to school districts statewide.<\/p>\n Read more<\/strong><\/p>\n A full copy of the board\u2019s legislative priorities can be found at: www.edlinesites.net\/files\/_LECls_\/a975d1c27465d3403745a49013852ec4\/7_3gs_Leg_Priorities-First.pdf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a charter school hoping to attract low-income students failed to get the green light by the Juneau Board of Education earlier this year, a legal discussion began \u2013 can more poor students legally be anyone\u2019s goal? Ultimately, after a consultation with City and Borough of Juneau Attorney Amy Mead, the answer was no. Because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21063"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}