ELCC Standard 6 The Big Picture Linda Bearden, Mona Fairley, Marcela Uribe EDL 7705 Current Issues

1. ELCC Standard 6The Big PictureLinda Bearden, Mona Fairley, Marcela UribeEDL 7705 Current Issues

2. What areas of concern fall under the big picture?

3. ELCC Standard 6 Candidates who complete the program are educational leaders who have the ability to promote the success of all students by understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.

4. Scenario Disgruntled mom is upset about redistricting because her child will not be able to attend the same school that she and her children previously attended. She bypasses the principal and calls directly to the superintendent’s office to complain and see if she can get permission for her child to attend that same school.

5. Essential Questions????

6. http://www.fultonschools.org/redistricting/Round1agendaand%20Presentation.pdfhttp://www.fultonschools.org/redistricting/Round1agendaand%20Presentation.pdf

7. Reasons for Redistricting • Primary Criteria: Geographic proximity - Distance traveled using available routes of transportation. • Capacity - Number of students who can be accommodated at the school, taking into account the number of classrooms and resource rooms needed for art, music, laboratories, foreign language, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), special education, and Talented and Gifted (TAG) programs. • Projected enrollment - Number of students assigned to a school taking into account the future projected enrollment. • Secondary Criteria: Traffic patterns - Factors impacting accessibility of the school from all portions of the attendance zone, including travel time, traffic flow in the area, safe operation of school buses, and other safety considerations. • Previous rezoning - School system seeks to avoid rezoning neighborhoods more than once during a three-year period if facility sizes and geographic distribution of student populations allow. • Special programs - School system seeks to avoid placing in each zone disproportionate numbers of programs that serve children with special needs and require use of additional space over and above that of a regular classroom. • School feeder alignment - Where possible, consideration should be given to the alignment of elementary, middle, and high school attendance boundaries. • Neighborhoods and collections of neighborhoods are the geographical units used to define school attendance zones. Neighborhoods will be defined based upon factors including natural geographic barriers such as rivers and major roads, identifiable residential subdivisions or apartment complexes, established homeowners' associations and shared amenities such as swimming pools.

9. Redistricting Process • School Attendance Zone Redistricting Process • At the start of any attendance zone redistricting process, the school system administration will hold a community forum(s) open to any person residing in the geographic area of the schools being considered for rezoning. Trained facilitators will be used to moderate group discussions and record input from the community. • The purposes of the forum include: • providing information to the community on the rezoning process, criteria and timeline, • receiving input from community members on geographic areas that should be considered "neighborhoods" and be treated as a unit within a zone, • receiving information on pending residential development, • receiving information on other changes in residential characteristics, • receiving information on historical issues regarding previous changes in school attendance zones. • receiving information on traffic patterns, safety hazards, and the like. • Additional community forum(s) will be held to explain the options and receive additional input and reaction. The administration will make any adjustments they feel are needed, and will recommend attendance zones to the Board for each school in question.

10. About the redistricting process • Each time a redistricting effort is under way, the school system holds three rounds of meetings to gather information needed to draft a redistricting proposal that best meets the needs of the community. Each round will be held from at two locations so that community members can be assured an opportunity for input. The same information will be presented at both meetings so participants need only attend one of the two meetings during each round. Each meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. • Round One– October 30 (Woodland Middle) or November 2 (Liberty Point Elementary) • · School system staff outlines redistricting process and establishes ground rules for facilitated small-group input sessions. • · Participants move to small-group sessions and input is gathered related to the redistricting criteria. • · Staff reviews public comments and applies Board-approved redistricting criteria to develop alternative attendance zone plans prior to the next community forum. • Round Two – November 28 (Woodland Middle) or November 30 (Liberty Point Elementary) • · Staff presents alternative proposals for 2007-08 south Fulton attendance zones developed with established criteria and community input. • · Community members comment on strengths and weaknesses of each plan in facilitated small-group discussions. • · Prior to the next community forum, staff condenses the number of attendance zone alternatives based on public input. • Round Three – December 12 (Woodland Middle) or December 14 (Liberty Point Elementary) • · Community members review and provide input on revised attendance zone alternatives in facilitated small-group discussions. • · Staff uses comments to develop final attendance zone options for Board consideration. • Criteria used for developing redistricting proposal • During the meetings, community members will review the School Board’s redistricting criteria and can comment on residential development, traffic, previous redistricting, special programs, and other issues relevant to the criteria used for redrawing attendance lines.

11. Voices of the Community

12. Projected Map for 2007-2008for South Fulton County Schools

13. Growth in South Fulton

14. Economic Growth

15. Social Growth

16. Factors that Effect Zoning and Redistricting • Geographic proximity • Capacity • Projected enrollment • Traffic patterns • Previous rezoning • Special programs • School feeder alignment

17. Food for Thought • Do we really consider all of the factors when rezoning? • Do we by pass tough issues to make the politicians happy? DO WE ALWAYS DO WHAT IS BEST FOR KIDS WHEN WE REDISTRICT?