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Uploaded: Friday, December 21, 2012, 8:41 AM
Officials propose Addison school boundary change
After recent 'overflows,' district wants to redraw map for future families
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by Chris Kenrick
Palo Alto Weekly Staff
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 | Palo Alto school officials are recommending shifting the boundary between the attendance areas of Addison and Walter Hays elementary schools, due to persistent "overflow" problems at Addison in recent years.
Superintendent Kevin Skelly suggests that incoming and future students who live within a 20-block area north and south of Embarcadero Road -- roughly bounded by Alma Street, Kingsley Avenue, Channing Avenue, Melville Avenue and the backyards between Churchill Avenue and Coleridge Avenue -- attend Walter Hays rather than Addison.
Current Addison students and any younger, preschool siblings would be able to stay at Addison. The new boundaries would apply to all other entering students beginning next fall.
The Board of Education is likely to vote on the change in January.
"We've discussed this with both principals as well as the school Traffic Safety Committee," Skelly said Tuesday, Dec. 18. "There are certainly concerns, but any change is going to generate concerns. This is the best change we could identify."
Addison parents were told last spring of the pending change, and there has been more recent discussion with Walter Hays parents, he said.
Additional meetings with the school communities are being planned, said Ann Dunkin, chief technology officer for the school district.
Current boundaries have created massive uncertainty for pre-kindergarten families in the Addison area, where more than 30 students were "overflowed" and sent to other schools two years ago, Skelly told the school board Tuesday.
"We'd really like to fix that," he said. "Hays has seen declining enrollment trends as kids age up, so we're looking at shifting some of these kids from Addison to Hays."
Also Tuesday, officials said that despite rising enrollment, Palo Alto's three middle schools -- augmented by portable classrooms -- should be able to meet demand at least through 2021.
Board members and Skelly have said they would like to open a fourth middle school before that time. Dunkin, who has been analyzing projections, said, "There is probably some middle ground."
Board members said they would like to see options that include opening a new middle school before 2021, and Skelly promised to come back after the holidays with proposals.
As for a new elementary school, a committee of parents and school officials will convene after the holidays to advise on options, guided by a list of "values" approved by the board. In October, board members asked staff to come up with a "conceptual comparison" of opening a 13th elementary school at the old Garland Elementary School campus at 870 N. California Ave. versus the Greendell campus at 4120 Middlefield Road.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Nick, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 11:29 am What are the CURRENT boundaries for Addison School?
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Posted by any more info, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 11:57 am Does this mean that we can get rid of the bubble classes at Addison?
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Posted by any more info, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 11:58 am Current school boundaries: Web Link
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Posted by Hays mom, a member of the Walter Hays School community, on Dec 22, 2012 at 8:27 am The bubble classes will probably still be at Addison and Hays because of over-enrollment until they open the 13th elementary school. What this means is that hopefully not as many kids will be overflowed from Addison to Hays. If you move into the new boundary area you will be assigned to Hays as your neighborhood school.
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Posted by Mom, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Dec 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm Families in north Palo Alto would not have to worry about their children getting a kindergarten spot in their neighborhood school if the Tinsley program students were placed in the south Palo Alto schools that are under-enrolled.
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Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Dec 24, 2012 at 1:44 pm The District spreads the Tinsley kids equally thru the schools.
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Posted by Hays mom, a member of the Walter Hays School community, on Dec 24, 2012 at 3:11 pm The Tinsley kids are not equally spread through the schools. It is based on racial make-up and space and therefore Hays ends up with a disproportionate number. The Tinsley students are placed after Priority 1 registrations but any neighborhood kids coming in over the summer will be bumped by a Tinsley student. Fair? Absolutely not. Will the district do anything about it? Absolutely not.
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Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Dec 24, 2012 at 3:25 pm Hays mom - the Tinsley kids are actually placed before any other students. Here's the order: Tinsley kids, siblings of current students that live in the neighborhood area, neighborhood kids, students out of the neighborhood with siblings in the school, staff kids, then a bunch of misc. (neighborhood being the enrollment area).
Web Link
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Posted by mattie, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Dec 24, 2012 at 8:11 pm So, if I'm reading the map correctly, you can literally live across the street from Addison and have it not be your school?
As a whole, I don't know enough to be for or against. [Looking at the map], it does seem an obvious improvement to the proposal to extend the Kingsley line to Guinda, and then turn it right. Or maybe just cut it at Middlefield. Going to the same school as your pals is the big plus of neighborhood schools, and fewer jagged boundaries maximize that.
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Posted by Mr.Recycle, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Dec 26, 2012 at 12:18 am @palo alto mom That's just the placement order when a school is over enrolled. It doesn't mean that Tinsley students are equally spread out. I have no idea how they are distributed, but it does seem like Hays gets more because it has more space.
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Posted by shouting distance to Addison, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Dec 26, 2012 at 10:45 am so living on Kingsley and Webster, where we can literally hear the kids on the Addison playground from our windows, kids would go to Hays? I can't quite tell what happens to Kingsley from this line, but I really question turning a 1 1/2 block safe walk to a Middlefield crossing. Perhaps main road crossings should be considered a little more closely here.
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Posted by numbers game, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Dec 27, 2012 at 4:56 pm According to the "official enrollment figures for 2012-13, including data on ethnicity and on the number of students who have been "overflowed" from their neighborhood schools due to lack of space", Tinsley kids are evenly spread out at around 5-6% of each elementary school.
There is only one elementary school that stands out as having an under-representation of Tinsley students and that is the Mandarin Immersion program, which only has one Ravenswood student across all grades.
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Posted by Hays Mom, a member of the Walter Hays School community, on Dec 29, 2012 at 8:19 pm PA Mom - that's what I was trying to say. VTP students are placed after Priority 1 registrations based on space. If the school is over-enrolled the provisions that you posted go into effect.
If you look at the Board Packet from October 9th you'll find the numbers of VTP students at each school. Hays has the most at 42. Palo Verde has the least with 12. Not completely space-based, but it has a lot to do with it.
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Posted by Damn kids get off my lawn, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Jan 7, 2013 at 2:56 pm I agree that the Walter Hays school should be for the Walter Hays kids (and we know who they should be) and we should send those Tinsley kids back wherever they came from, or at least to south Palo Alto which is basically Mountain View anyway. Hey that's a great idea...let's unincorporate Mayfield and Barron Park and just have Palo Alto like it was in the golden age, before all these outsiders sued us and caused problems for our schools. We never had an achievement gap before those VTP kids came to PAUSD and now we're just being punished for our good deeds.
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Posted by Paly Alum, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Jan 7, 2013 at 8:41 pm I agree, Tinsley is taking the valuable spots from our Palo Alto residents. It was fine when PAUSD was underenrolled.
While there are some Tinsley students who are nice and come from nurturing families who support their children academically, the majority of Tinsley students are not assimilating. My children would prefer to work on projects with students who are engaged and can meet after school or on weekends to work on the project. The Tinsley students are bused and oftentimes have no transportation to meet.
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Posted by Damn kids get off my lawn, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Jan 8, 2013 at 10:39 am Yeah, sharing is for wimps and losers. Let's bus those kids with bad families back wherever they came from. My brother is not my problem. I sm hwicng troubso typing with this mote in my eye.
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