SPA Board of Directors - Latest comments on Charter | Section 8 | Students

In response to: Charter | Section 8 | Students

Sue Waite-Langley [Member] — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:26:37 +0000

I guess my point in Comment 1 is that by high school, siblings very often have distinctly different interests, goals, and aptitudes. I really believe that keeping siblings together at a high school level is not nearly as important as at a middle or elementary level. I'm hoping that this revision will last us for a while and therefore we should be planning for a lottery. I'd hate to think that a child who deperately wants to study theatre could lose a spot to a sibling who gets to bypass the lottery and attend the school because it's convenient for a parent but who personally doesn't care about the arts education that we offer.

In response to: Charter | Section 8 | Students

John Newman [Member] — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:34:05 +0000

I am not certain whether charters are ALLOWED to admit siblings on a priority basis or MANDATED to admit them. It would be worth finding out. My own sense is that we are serving families and keeping siblings together is a huge selling point... As noted, it will be a great day when this issue comes into play.
In response to comment 2, I'm thinking that "supervising adult" should be clarified as "faculty or staff member," which I suspect was the original intent. Yes, volunteers handling discipline is not a good situation and I think we should be more specific in this case.

In response to: Charter | Section 8 | Students

Sue Waite-Langley [Member] — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:02:50 +0000

[Comment 1] I know that this is often common practice in elementary schools however, at the high school level I do not personally feel that one child "winning the lottery" should automatically pull in a sibling. We will very shortly be faced (I'm optimistic) with needing to use the lottery system and need to give this point some thought.

[Comment 2] Does supervising adult include volunteers and parents? There are some issues with non-staff members handling discipline.