Nashville rezoned this year too.

[cathymccaughan]

"The Metro Nashville school board tonight narrowly approved a rezoning plan that will put students in schools closer to their homes.

The 5-4 vote followed two hours of spirited debate.

Opponents of the proposal have said that it will intensify school segregation and cluster poor and difficult-to-teach students in some schools. Proponents of the plan have said that the assignment changes will encourage parental involvement and boost student performance.

The board vote was nearly divided along racial lines. Karen Johnson, who represents the Antioch area, was the only black board member who voted for the proposal."

It's like Knox County and Davidson County are conducting a social experiment. Maybe Shelby County or Hamilton County will join in on the fun by offering open zoning.

[Pamela Treacy]

Let's learn more about open zoning. Do you know which cities have done this?

[Jamey Dobbs]

I'd like to read about open zoning, and strict community zoning, both for and against. Anybody have any good links to recommend?

[Jamey Dobbs]

Wow....another way to get to community-based schools....ask the people!

THE 37TH STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A 1903 elementary school on the west side of Milwaukee is the linchpin of a comprehensive plan to re-establish neighborhood schools in the city. This inspiring project springs from the Neighborhood Schools Initiative (NSI), approved by the Wisconsin legislature in October 1999. The law authorized the Milwaukee school district to borrow up to $170 million of public funds to construct new schools or renovate existing ones to increase the number of students attending school in their neighborhoods.

Under this initiative, a collaborative and interactive planning process, in which the school district invited participation from community residents from every part of the city, developed a plan to revamp Milwaukee’s overcrowded schools. This process included 310 community outreach meetings, door-to-door surveys of 940 households, telephone surveys of 1,473 parents, 13 focus groups, and 1,617 parent information surveys. During the outreach effort, parents told MPS the factors that would encourage them to send their children to their neighborhood school: expanded before- and after-school child care and schooling, increased safety, more school seats for kindergarten through eighth grade, and continued choice of schools. These recommendations form the guiding principles for the Neighborhood Schools Plan.

The plan focused on improving the 28 most crowded elementary schools and the six most crowded middle schools. When fully implemented, the plan will have created more than 11,000 new seats and 750,000 square feet of additional space through construction of six new schools, additions to 19 existing schools, and renovations of 15 existing schools. In addition, it will convert a total of 32 additional schools to K-8. Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority bonds will fund the plan.

Schools for Successful Communities: An Element of Smart Growth September, 2004 http://www.epa.gov/dced/pdf/SmartGrowth_schools_Pub.pdf

[cathymccaughan]

This is a New Zealand speech that discusses zoning for schools. You can skip to the last page, but then you miss the pros and cons of zoning. This is a lengthy abstract that I did not download and read. This is a blog post about the effect of school choice in Massachusetts. This journal article is about school vouchers, but deserves to have every word read. This is a lengthy article with very specific school system examples that correlate well to Knox County Schools which concludes with this paragraph:

"Choice has proven to be a useful tactic in promoting urban public education transformation and experimentation, and its focus on the involvement of families in all phases of schooling is important. Choice is not the only genuine engine of educational reform, however, although the reports here suggest that it can increase educational effectiveness and opportunity. Ultimately, good schools for all children will only be achieved through finance equity, prepared professionals, high standards, and purpose."
Shuffling students around to try and force an economic balance in every school is a backward system. Anchoring students to the nearest school regardless of that school's performance is equally backward. Families should have choices and schools need to be so desirable that parents are happy here AND there.

[granma2]

I'm not opposed to school choice because I don't understand at all how it would work. Can you explain it? Don't the children of people who live closest to a school (and pay the property taxes to live near that school) have the first right to go to the school in their neighborhood? In KCS, I can't imagine that the "coveted" schools in West Knoxville would have any room for those outside the neighborhoods that serve these schools. My own children went to Farragut schools, and I resented it when someone out of zone crowded up the hallways and classes. These schools are already over-crowded with people who live IN zone. How would they accept someone who just chooses to go there? I don't understand.

[cathymccaughan]

I'm sorry you resented students who were at Farragut High by choice instead of prime real estate location, but Farragut is not YOUR school. It belongs to everyone in Knox County. Bearden, West and Austin East are also everyone's schools. We should care about all of the schools in our county and make each one a valuable asset that families want their children to attend. After Hardin Valley Academy has been open a year or two, I think that families will be eager to have their children attending it. Every school in Knoxville is capable of having that level of attractiveness.

[Pamela Treacy]

Right on Cathy. We only have one district in Knox County. Granma2, if you were referring to students from Loudon County going to FHS, I agree with you. It is still happening today. I don't agree with if you are suggesting that students in Karns shouldn't go to the Farragut district -- there is no Farragut district. Anyone in Knox County should be able to go to the school that they choose. It is the only way we are going to get equal schools. It is ridiculous that there is such a difference between the schools -- some failing and some on the Top High Schools list. This is not a good thing for Knox County.

Great stuff on open zoning.

[granma2]

Pamela and Cathy: neither one of you answered my question. What is open zoning and how does it work? What would be the practical application in KCS? Transportation? What about over-crowded schools? And I resent your statement that Farragut is not "your" school. It most certainly is the school my children were zoned for, and we bought a house there specifically so my children could attend those schools as do many other people. I, along with my husband other involved parents, worked hard and supported the staff and administration to help keep it the school it was and still is. And that's what you should do for the school your children are zoned for.

Pam: what's the difference between Loudon County students and students from other zones in Knox County? If you're out of zone, you're out of zone. Loudon County students at least pay tuition. Out of zone KC students just get a free ride. Why should students in the Karns High School district go to Farragut? The town of Farragut does not adequately support the schools and no, FHS does not belong to the town of Farragut. However, in order to conscientiously provide for all the students of Knox County in an equitable fashion, the school board zones schools by neighborhoods so that no one school tries to handle too many students. How else could you run the 73rd largest school system in the country? How do you educate 53,000 students if you don't divide them into school zones?

Austin-East students can (and have been able to for more than 15 years) transfer to Farragut if they want, and KCS provides transportation. It's not those students I resented. It was the ones zoned for other KCS who gave false addresses to attend. I think that's a despicable thing for parents to model for their children. "We'll get where we want because we'll lie." If you want your children to go to Farragut, Bearden, West, or Austin-East, move into that area. Plan ahead when you buy a house. Seems very simple to me.

[Pamela Treacy]

I didn't understand that you were referring to residents who were committing fraud to attend a specific high school. If you are out of zone, you are out of zone unless you have applied for a transfer. The number of transfers are limited.

It also gets confusing with the words zone, district and school system. Knox County only has one school system which is often referred to as the district (state reference)

Cathy is responding to a frequent comment which is that the folks in Farragut think that Farragut is it's own district.

So how does open zoning work? It's up to the community. Some options:
you can create prefered zones.
Then if you choose you can apply for a school outside your zone.
Or the parental resposniblity zones can be enlarged making that the core zone. Then others apply.
Of course each school can not exceed it's maximum capacity so you may not get your FIRST choice, but you get a choice.
The goal is that the number allowed to "transfer" is greater. It would be based on school capacity. At the moment, it is a small number based on current resources allocated to that school. It would be reversed. Resource would be allocated to the school based on demand and school capacity.
The transportation could be that it's provided to the school within a preferred zone, if you elect outside that zone, you provide your own.

These are just thoughts off the top of my head. I am sure that others have studied this more -- which is what I have suggested on my posts. Let's learn more about this.

The problem is that the last rezoning broke up communities in Bearden, Farragut, Alice Bell and Powell. As you mentioned above, communities support the school. A good portion of the people in Knox County when asked -- where do you live, they responded with the name of their high school. People buy homes with the plan to attend a specific school. Rezoning is never popular. It is a the result of lack of planning. A community that plans for growth and education would not have had the county wide zoning that occured here.

Hopefully, choice will allow more people to feel engaged to the process of education.

[granma2]

I'm wondering if what you mean by "Rezoning is never popular. It is a the result of lack of planning" is that KCS didn't plan. I believe they waited too long to build a new high school, but I would lay blame of over-crowding in schools on developers who do not consider the impact of new subdivisions on the infastructure of a community before they wantonly build homes. I wish Knox County would adopt the impact tax on new development like Loudon County has done.

While I understand the difficulty of changing school zones, it was the parents (myself included) who lobbied for a new school to relieve over-crowding at Farragut. It was years in the making, and someone has to be rezoned to go there. If your argument is with the placement of the facility, that's what should be addressed, not the actual rezoning structure. I'm hoping the developers will move toward the Hardin Valley area, as it seems they have, and that will become a viable and desired place to live so that there will be adequate support for the new school. Farragut High School needs relief from the numbers it has had to bear for too long. In a school with a capacity of 1800, it will open Aug. 11 with more students than that despite the new high school. When my children were there, it was at almost 2,400. Why does this keep happening? I wish KCS would crack down severely on illegally out-of-zone students, including the children of teachers who live out of zone, and limit the population at each school to those who are legally zoned.

I'm a bit fuzzy on this, but I think at one time KCS had the chance to buy the property where All Saints Church is on Cedar Bluff Rd. for a new high school and they declined.

[cathymccaughan]

Are you or are you not saying that you think that only people who buy homes in Farragut are allowed to attend Farragut High?

[granma2]

People who live in the Farragut High School zone as designated by KCS are the only students who should be allowed to go to FHS. It has absolutely nothing to do with the town of Farragut, who, incidentally, does not support KCS to the extent that the city of Knoxville does. People who buy homes in the FHS school zone are allowed to attend Farragut High. Farragut High School belongs to Knox County Schools, NOT the town of Farragut, and everyone who lives in the town of Farragut knows that. However, there are plenty of folks whose homes do not lie within the city of Farragut who are zoned for FHS. I think some issues came up in the rezoning for HVA where some families whose homes lie within the city limits of Farragut became disgruntled that they were no longer zoned for FHS. But the city of Farragut does not own nor adequately support the schools within its town limits. It was and rightly should have been a decision by the KCSB.