Transcript Neighborhood Schools

Neighborhood Schools
A Brief History Of Managing School
Use, Student Enrollment, and
Transportation In the Greece
Central School System
Step 1. Defining “Neighborhood”
 Is It Defined by Geography?
 Address Based, like Zip Codes?
 Consistent Borders
 Travel – or “Service Area”.
 Is It defined by a “Purpose”

Economic, Social, Functional
 Or, Is it just a concept?
Step 2.How are areas for a
“Neighborhood School” Established
 Is It Geographic?:
 Is it defined by “map coordinates”.
 Yes, but not totally
 Is it defined by function:
 Area established by the number of students
by grade level for a given building capacity.
 Or is it more of a concept ?:
 Ask for a definition of “Neighborhood
Schools” from any resident!
Example of
Boundaries Variance for
Two “Neighborhood Schools”
Geographic
Service Area
Boundary
Example of
Boundaries Variance for
Two “Neighborhood Schools”

CapacityDemand 
They picked “Service Area”
 At onset, Greece decided on
Elementary “Distributed Campuses”
rather than one or two Central
Campuses.
 Kids could walk to schools, attendance
areas could be adjusted annually.
 Higher parent involvement, “small
school” atmosphere
 Minimal Cost increase in duplicated
Services
Service Area Reality
 Distributed Campuses:
 Not enough campuses to eliminate the need for
busses. K-6 transport by distance meant “My 1st
graders rides a bus ,my third grader walks.
Why?”
 Higher parent involvement but only for core
families who remained in area. Families near
boundaries often attended a different school
every year. Parent quote, “I have been P.T.A.
vice president in four schools.”
 Minimal Cost in duplicated Services was never
achieved.
Service Area Solutions
 NO Practical Solutions:
 Restrict enrollment. Real Estate Agent to
buyer:" Over enrollment in this neighborhood
school prevents me from selling you this house.”
 Control grade level class sizes: “Honey, we
can’t have a child unless we agree to move to
Brookside!”
 Severely distort Service areas:" What if we
made the boundaries for Parkland look like a
giant squash or cucumber bounded by …..”
Function Cost Problems Emerged
 Number of “Grade Level” classrooms and
related space often were at a mismatch with
the demand even when a building was at or
below “rated capacity”.
 Building classrooms not designed for easy
conversion. 1st graders restroom
requirements differed from 5th graders and
vice versa.
 Teacher - student ratios often out of
balance. Class sizes all over the map.
Trying to make it work
 Attempts to fix:
 Adjustable height or location in everything from
chalkboards to playground equipment.
 Art and other services were placed on carts.
 Portable Classrooms
 Library and other educational materials
became “polarized” with some buildings
having them – others not.
 We became the “Greece Central School
Districts”
SOLUTION -- CENTRALIZE
 Board finally became aware the
quality of “elementary education” was
being compromised by the restriction
of the decentralized campus.
 We needed to transition from the
“one room school house” model to
the “applied resource” model.
 We had to buy more buildings and
more busses.
Facility Problem Solution
 We could solve part of the problem by
putting wheels under students but
there was no way of putting
classrooms on wheels
 Solution: rebuild elementary schools
to optimize grade level classrooms
 That meant reorganizing to a K-2,3-5,
middle and HS. model
SOLUTION 2:
Buffer Schools & K-5
 Reorganized to K-2,3-5, middle and
HS. Model
 West Ridge was assigned as a buffer
school populated by subscription
 Service areas were virtually doubled
in size which meant increased
transportation
Problems with New Model.
 Poor articulation of objectives K-2,3-5,
 Insufficient preparation for the middle school
lead to a series of educational problems some of
which linger to this day.
 Student performance info did not span grade 2
to Grade 3 transition
 Parents, whose children had successful K-6
experience, disliked K-2, 3-5 arrangement
 Parents who suffered boundary changes
saw little difference
Benefits  Attendance Boundaries Stabilized
 Improved programs for the Arts
 Easier to develop student’s unique
talents
 Improved quality management
 Savings in direct labor costs because
of more uniform class sizes.
 Improvements in Special Ed
Dollars and Sense Labor
Direct Per Pupil Teacher Labor
$6,000
$5,000
$4,000
Greece
State
$3,000
$2,000
$1,000
$0
1998
2000
2002
2004
No fringe benefits and city data is
excluded
Dollars and Bussing
$800
Direct Per Pupil Transportation
$700
$600
$500
Greece
State
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
No fringe benefits and city data is
excluded
Difference in Labor and
Transportation Dollars
$900
$800
$700
$600
$500
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
($100)
Greece Labor
Saving Comp to
State
Transportation
saving (cost)
compared to
State
1998
2000
2002
2004
Greece spent over $800 LESS than
the State Average on direct teacher labor in 2004-05.
What the numbers mean
 Greece teachers are more productive
in terms of number of students
supported.
 We could spend much more per pupil
on transportation and still be ahead
of the State.
 Transportation cost do nor correlate
precisely to number of students
Summary
 Restructuring Educational Programs is a
work in progress
 It has been compromised by a a lack of
good comparative data and a willingness
for Board members to understand it.
 We, the Greece Community, need to discard
the conventional wisdom or we may yet
snatch defeat from the jaws of success.