Capacity Gain is the Most Important Criterion for Conversion
June 13, 2006--At its Committee of the Whole meeting today, school board members told staff that capacity gain is the most important criterion when considering which elementary schools to designate to the multi-track year-round calendar for 2007-08.
All board members ranked “How much capacity (space for new students) will be gained through conversion of a school?” as their first or second priority. Board members also agreed that the other 11 criteria are important and need to be considered. The board will continue its discussion of criteria at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20.
Staff briefly discussed several ways the school system may gather community feedback on the criteria, including setting up an area on the WCPSS website for online comments, sending a form for written comments to every school for display in the office or lobby, and convening a focus group to discuss the criteria.
Here are some important dates as the board continues its discussion:
June 20 – The Board of Education revises and identifies most important criteria to be utilized by the Growth and Planning Department.
June 20-July 18 – The Growth and Planning Department receives and summarizes community comments regarding the criteria.
July 18 – Staff reports on community input and the Board of Education adopts a set of criteria for conversion of schools.
July 18-August 14 – Staff applies the criteria and develops a proposal for consideration by the board.
August 15 – At the Facilities Committee meeting, staff present a proposal to the Board of Education in which sufficient elementary schools are converted to multi-track calendars to gain 3,000 additional seats for the 2007-08 school year and in which sufficient middle schools are identified to provide appropriate multi-track year-round middle school feeder options for the elementary schools.
August 22 – The Board of Education discusses, revises, and gives preliminary approval to the selection of schools for conversion.
All of this information will be factored into the 2007-08 Growth Management Plan, which would be presented in late November or early December. The community would have opportunities to provide feedback at public hearings.