Like pawns in a chess game Like pawns in a chess game (September 07, 2005)

Students shuffled around in effort to get them enrolled in neighborhood schools

by Alexandria Rocha

While trying to enroll her two children in their neighborhood school, Palo Alto parent Ginny Hull's children encountered five elementary sites in one year.

The kids moved between campuses like game board pieces, inching closer to home with each strategic shift. Luckily, Hull said, they were resilient.

"When you're here for the long term you just have to stand a little bit of inconvenience and hope the chips will fall in your favor," said Hull, whose family moved from Menlo Park so their children could benefit from Palo Alto's schools.

Most parents agree the Palo Alto Unified School District's neighborhood schools program is one of the system's major bonuses. And most students also have an easy time getting enrolled in the school closest to their home.

However, there are dozens of students every year who do not land a spot in their nearby campuses and are "overflowed," as the district calls it, to another temporary site. Sometimes siblings close in age are split up and parents must carpool or race between schools.

With about 150 elementary students overflowed in 2004-2005 (figures for this year weren't available), the situation is reflective of the district's struggle with increasing enrollment and space. There are also a small number of parents who want their students at sites other than the neighborhood school for various reasons, including the draw of a specific teachers or high test scores.

The district does an intense amount of shuffling and shifting -- mostly at the beginning of each new year but sometimes stretching into the fall -- to fit students into their appropriate sites. Each school office has a waiting list of students hoping to move closer to home. When a desk in a classroom opens, the student at the top of the waiting list gets the call.

One parent compared it to horse trading.

When the call comes, however, it's not a simple decision for many of the "overflowed" families. Oftentimes the students are already in the middle of settling into their school, making new friends and getting to know their teacher. For parents, it also means new parent groups, after-school programs, transportation schedules and simply the decision on whether to uproot their child.

Michael Dreyfus found out his daughter landed a spot at their nearby school after two weeks of kindergarten at another site.

"It would be a lot nicer if you knew earlier," he said. "It's hard for little kids because you have to prepare them. They start to get comfortable. It's a tough call."

Hull's family bounced around for one year before there was room at Duveneck Elementary School for her two children. After moving from Menlo Park in May 2004 and enrolling in the local district, her students were originally overflowed to Barron Park Elementary School across town. Hull met a family in their neighborhood with a daughter overflowed to Juana Briones. To set up a carpool, Hull successfully had her children switched to that school. Then two months later, a spot opened at Walter Hays and Hull moved her daughter there, splitting the siblings.

"I had to be in two places at once. It was not ideal, but it was doable with help," she said. "We were pleased with Briones, it just wasn't in the neighborhood and we moved here because we wanted the neighborhood schools."

If that wasn't enough, about three weeks ago Hull found out there was room for both kids at Duveneck. The family had already planned for another year at two elementary schools, and since Hull's daughter had already undergone a great deal of change her feelings were taken into consideration.

"I left the decision entirely up to her. I felt I had moved her enough. This decision needed to be her decision," Hull said. "She didn't really deliberate that long. The thought of walking to school and walking with her neighborhood friend was enough."

Some parents have criticized the district's handling of situations like Hull's. However, officials attest they're doing their best and that the current system makes sense.

"We do everything we can to keep families together and keep them at their neighborhood school," said Marie Scigliano, the district's director of central attendance. "But when a school is full, they overflow to the same cluster."

Scigliano is referring to the way the district groups its 12 elementary schools. For example, Addison, Duveneck, and Walter Hays elementary schools are in the same cluster.

When there are enough students in the same grade being overflowed from the same neighborhoods, the district will add the appropriate classes to their home campuses, which benefits parents in situations like Hull's. This year, the district added a second-grade to Addison and a third-grade each at Barron Park and Duveneck.

For some parents like Tanya Henderson, splitting her siblings wouldn't do. Her family had moved from Massachusetts to Palo Alto for a career change and the local district only had room for one of her children at their neighborhood campus.

"Having moved my kids 3,000 miles away from all their family and friends, that wasn't an option," she said.

Henderson took the district's offer and overflowed both kids to Barron Park. Since they were still renting and Barron Park worked out well, the family decided to buy their house in that neighborhood and keep their kids at the overflow site.

Some might wonder why the district doesn't just squeeze in a student here and there or add classes as needed with more ease. As school board Vice President Mandy Lowell pointed out, the district is under tight constraints from the state's kindergarten through third-grade class size reduction program, in which it receives funding for keeping classes at a certain size. And adding more classes means bringing in portables, which is not ideal and could cause major space issues on the smaller campuses.

"I think being overflowed is difficult for people, but it's better than having huge class sizes at one school and 18 at another," Lowell said earlier this week. "Some of these problems are inevitable. Kids don't come in neighborhoods in neat packs of 20."

That doesn't mean the problem is solved or there are not other solutions. The district is expected to grow by 600 students, the mid-range projection, in the next five years. Lowell said school officials have been discussing the possibility of a community-wide enrollment committee to begin looking at the data. The committee could be discussed as early as the next board meeting Sept. 13.

Although her students' first year within the district was turbulent, Hull said she is happy with the outcome. She also said the district is doing the best it can.

"The district has a certain set of rules and they're very strict on how they follow the rules. It doesn't seem like there are exceptions," she said. "You wouldn't want to be sitting there on the list and have someone bake two loaves of bread and a batch of brownies and have their kids bumped up the list."

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