Some 12,000 students and their panicked parents won a temporary reprieve today when Los Angeles schools Superintendent Ramon Cortines announced that he would continue to issue almost all permits that allow the children to attend campuses in other, often higher-achieving school districts.
At a board meeting that was packed with parents (some wearing "I Love My School" T-shirts), Cortines said that he was at least temporarily reneging a new policy that was expected to return four-fifths of students on "inter-district permits" to Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.
"For existing permits, the majority of those will be approved," he said, generating applause and cheers from the audience. "I am not knowingly going to harm the education of boys and girls and young people and distress the adult in their life."
For the 2011-12 school year, he said he would put in place a new system that would more clearly define which children would be eligible for permits. The system would come before the board in September, he said.
Cortines also said he'd seek data from parents explaining why they chose to send their children to other school districts.
He blamed the now-defunct decision to stop offering the permits on education budget cuts imposed by the state Legislature, as did Board President Monica Garcia.
At a meeting in February, the board had quietly approved a policy allowing Cortines to limit such permits. In an internal memo, he told them he would only issue permits to children rising to fifth, eighth or 12th grade, and to students whose parents worked within the boundaries of other school districts. The move would bring $51 million in enrollment-based state funding back to LAUSD, which was then looking at a $640 million budget gap.
When news got out, many parents became frantic -- and officials in the transfer school districts likewise became concerned about lost enrollment and funding.
Parents pushed the district to change the policy. At today's meeting, board member Steve Zimmer had planned to introduce a motion to let high-schoolers complete their education while keeping the rest of the new policy intact. Zimmer withdrew his resolution after Cortines' comments.
I'll have more on the meeting soon.
*District press release after the jump.
LAUSD REVISITS INTER-DISTRICT TRANSFER APPLICATION PROCESS AND PROMISES NEW ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW SYSTEM
SUPERINTENDENT PLANS A NEW PROCESS FOR BOARD REVIEW IN SEPTEMBER 2010
LOS ANGELES-- During today's meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education, Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines announced that he is delaying his decision to tighten the LAUSD inter-district transfers application process citing discussions with parents, affected school district superintendents and the county superintendent. As a result, inter-district transfers for 2010-11 will continue to be available with the correct documentation.
Superintendent Cortines discussed how lax the District has been in the past regarding inter-district permits and promised a thorough review. Additional review of the administrative procedures for transfers will be conducted with the intent of introducing a new administrative system for further board review and discussion in September.
"I'd like to make it perfectly clear that LAUSD has made great strides in improving the educational options for students who reside within the boundaries of our school district. We have award-winning magnet programs, a number of California Distinguished schools, and campuses with small learning communities and personalized instruction," said Superintendent Cortines. "However, to minimize the impact on students, I have asked staff to delay implementation of the new District-wide procedure. This will provide us with ample time to review the reasons for requests for transfers, analyze them and respond with solutions that may cause parents to reexamine the various educational options and opportunities that LAUSD has to offer.
"My hope is that parents and guardians of our District will continue to visit our schools to see those improvements and become our champions of an LAUSD public education," Cortines continued.
Currently, 12,200 LAUSD students attend schools in other districts. Approximately 80 percent were expected to return to LAUSD schools under the revised policy, which would allow the District to recoup an estimated $51 million in state funds based on student attendance. That money is allocated based on the district in which the student attends school.
Parents will still have to apply for the transfer and each will be evaluated on some of the following criteria: parental employment, childcare, space availability, and educational options not offered within the District.
We were all thrilled when Mr. Cortines "reversed" his decision to limit inter-district permits to those related to parent employment or children on "senior status". However, what I'm hearing via our parent facebook page is that many permit denials are still happening. It seems to me that Mr. Cortines announced his reversal to calm parents down and avoid a nasty confrontation at the April 6 school board meeting. I have just applied for my daughter's permit, we'll see what happens..................