Westover is top choice in magnet school lottery

I don't know which is more unbelievable that they held the magnet lottery yesterday still no knowing which school will be closed or the fact that we still don't know which school will be closing. Unbelievable.....
So anyone who might be getting a call that they have been accepted to Rogers or Toquam may only attend the school this year and then next year one of these buildings will be closed and moved to the EMS.
Both scenerios, if I read them correctly, will allow families to stay intact however both scenario takes away 2 magnet schools for the city of Stamford as it will be impossible for the EMS building to allow any additional students into the building as it only allows a certain percentage of the population....
Either option will save the City of stamford money as most of the students are bused...Oh boy this is going to be interesting......

Judith Singer is a two-faced individual. She stands up in front of the news cameras and talks about how great the magnet/ lottery system is in that it gives people choices, yet fails to mention that if you are labeled "advantaged" and are in the Hart, KT Murphy, Rogers, or Stark districts you are restricted and shut out of the lottery. Choice? For who? I pay my taxes, I work hard to support my family, why don't I get a choice?

Duped wrote:

Judith Singer is a two-faced individual. She stands up in front of the news cameras and talks about how great the magnet/ lottery system is in that it gives people choices, yet fails to mention that if you are labeled "advantaged" and are in the Hart, KT Murphy, Rogers, or Stark districts you are restricted and shut out of the lottery. Choice? For who? I pay my taxes, I work hard to support my family, why don't I get a choice?

Yes....you've been duped my friend. Welcome to the world of the most ridiculous magnet lottery system on the planet. It is shameful. You were led to believe you had a choice??? JOKE. There is no rhyme or reason and if you don't fit a certain profile you are shut out! The door to those magnets will slame in your face. Don't be afraid to try a traditional school. You'll be glad you did. Keep the faith and get involved.

It's all about who you know..........
At least you still have a choice or at least you thought you did.
That isn't the case with the Meadowpark residents, they had their choice taken away and are now being forced to attend Hart Magnet. I'm sure Hart is a lovely school but no one should be forced to attend any school against their free will........
It's just not right. And the BoE should have waited to close a school before anyone was redistricted, that was wrong as well.

Duped wrote:

Judith Singer is a two-faced individual. She stands up in front of the news cameras and talks about how great the magnet/ lottery system is in that it gives people choices, yet fails to mention that if you are labeled "advantaged" and are in the Hart, KT Murphy, Rogers, or Stark districts you are restricted and shut out of the lottery. Choice? For who? I pay my taxes, I work hard to support my family, why don't I get a choice?

Duped, welcome to the party. You are yet another casualty of being blindsided by the BOE.

I was in attendance yesterday and when I heard you ask the question, my first thought was another example of the lack of communication between the Board of Ed and the Superintendent to the public. Upon registering or with the magnet application forms, it should have stated that if you are labeled advantaged and are districted to Murphy, Stark, Hart, or Rogers that you were locked out of the lottery and if you are labeled disadvantaged and are districted to Newfield, Roxbury, or Northweast you were also locked out.

There is also a misconception that the lottery is in fact a lottery. It is not is a controlled lottery. Magnet schools are suppose to help balance out the schools. If this is true, why not hold a true lottery and see what happens? It can't be any worse than what has already happened.

Welcome to the party wrote:

Duped, welcome to the party. You are yet another casualty of being blindsided by the BOE.
I was in attendance yesterday and when I heard you ask the question, my first thought was another example of the lack of communication between the Board of Ed and the Superintendent to the public. Upon registering or with the magnet application forms, it should have stated that if you are labeled advantaged and are districted to Murphy, Stark, Hart, or Rogers that you were locked out of the lottery and if you are labeled disadvantaged and are districted to Newfield, Roxbury, or Northweast you were also locked out.
There is also a misconception that the lottery is in fact a lottery. It is not is a controlled lottery. Magnet schools are suppose to help balance out the schools. If this is true, why not hold a true lottery and see what happens? It can't be any worse than what has already happened.

I actually wasn't there yesterday, I got the bad news over the phone when I called and spoke to Ms. Singer, but I'm sure many parents were caught off guard by the reality of this so called "lottery".

Maybe it's time to go back to school and brush up on that math. The increase in applications to Rogers is 57% higher that last year...."a slight increase" according to Singer. I wonder how many more would have applied if there wasn't the possibility that Rogers might close?

Sorry I had a typo in there ...it is a 52% increase

Singer is a HUGE part of this magnet disaster. How can we get rid of her and find someone trustworthy? What a nightmare!

I went to all the magnet open houses. I spoke to a couple of magnet administration people on the phone. No one ever told me that, because we're districted to Stark, it wouldn't matter if we drew lottery no. 1, we'd be skipped over due to being "advantaged."
Don't get me wrong. I'm fortunate to be "advantaged" and am grateful for my good fortune, and I don't wish to complain about that. But I really wanted my children to have the opportunity to go to a magnet school.
And couldn't someone have TOLD ME at some point in the process that I didn't need to find a babysitter, pay for a babysitter, etc. to go to all these open houses, just to drool over programs that we will never have the opportunity to experience. What a frustrating and unfair waste of time.

New Glenbrook resident wrote:

I went to all the magnet open houses. I spoke to a couple of magnet administration people on the phone. No one ever told me that, because we're districted to Stark, it wouldn't matter if we drew lottery no. 1, we'd be skipped over due to being "advantaged."
Don't get me wrong. I'm fortunate to be "advantaged" and am grateful for my good fortune, and I don't wish to complain about that. But I really wanted my children to have the opportunity to go to a magnet school.
And couldn't someone have TOLD ME at some point in the process that I didn't need to find a babysitter, pay for a babysitter, etc. to go to all these open houses, just to drool over programs that we will never have the opportunity to experience. What a frustrating and unfair waste of time.

Welcome to the Club! We are happy to have you as member. The same exact thing happened to me 4 years ago. I was (and still am) so disgusted with this idiotic, phony lottery system. Don't bother drooling because you have not been invited to join that club!! Sorry....And a few more magnet seats at EMS or Stark or wherever won't help this mess one bit. When are we going to stop this insanity? or is the only option to run for the hills. I don't blame you in the least for being discouraged.

Duped wrote:

<quoted text>
I actually wasn't there yesterday, I got the bad news over the phone when I called and spoke to Ms. Singer, but I'm sure many parents were caught off guard by the reality of this so called "lottery".

Duped I apologize. Another parent yesterday made the exact same comments. Speak out...this process is not transparent. There a lot of ways to be heard.

New Glenbrook resident wrote:

I went to all the magnet open houses. I spoke to a couple of magnet administration people on the phone. No one ever told me that, because we're districted to Stark, it wouldn't matter if we drew lottery no. 1, we'd be skipped over due to being "advantaged."
Don't get me wrong. I'm fortunate to be "advantaged" and am grateful for my good fortune, and I don't wish to complain about that. But I really wanted my children to have the opportunity to go to a magnet school.
And couldn't someone have TOLD ME at some point in the process that I didn't need to find a babysitter, pay for a babysitter, etc. to go to all these open houses, just to drool over programs that we will never have the opportunity to experience. What a frustrating and unfair waste of time.

We've already been redistricted and as a safety net applied to Hart (our school starting 2009) so that our kids could start in 2008 instead of waiting since we have no idea about phase in....we were told to be sure to put on the application that we had been redistricted to Hart and that it would carry some weight. Well...neither of my kids got a good number.

It's time for all of us to step forward and say this process isnt' work...redistricting and magent.

Start with letters to the Editor. And register to vote in this November's elections. Freedman is not seeking re-election (yipee!), so it's time for a new BoE president. I'm fed up! I decided to enter a tradition school here in Stamford. "By choice BUT not by choice"..I am so confused!! The good news; It has been a great experience.

lawyer? Is it leagal to use more tax funds for a magnet school when we are shut out?

Nobody is being forced to do anything "against their will". Every community has to deal with assigning students to schools on some basis. The most common basis is by street. But when schools become unbalanced, whether racially or socio-economically in some communities, or just by student capacity in every community, a community has to take action to correct the situation.
Whenever a community, through its school board, acts to "redistrict" students, the parents of those redistricted students object, often vociferously. They have every right to object. But a BOE has a responsibility to redistrict to correct overcrowding or to correct poorly balanced populations. Stamford should not be solving overcrowding problems by continually adding portable classrooms top some schools, while other schools have plenty of room.
Almost every community has districted its schools to assign students by street. To cal that "forcing students to go to a school against their free will" would mean that over 90% of students in this country are going to a school against their free will.
Although there were times when i felt my parents were sending me to school against my free will, im not sure that is the same idea.

Publius -

You make some valid points regarding the tough job any BOE has when it comes to redistricting. However, the BOE is doing this city a disservice when their processes are less than transparent and seemingly without vision. They are also not winning over any support when they claim the magnet schools provide choice when, the reality of the situation is that it provides choice to only select residents that fall into a certain category - and this is not, and never has been, clearly communicated. The very first line on the Stamford Public School website says regarding magnet schools - "Stamford's magnet schools offer educational choices to parents through innovative programs of theme-based instruction."

http://stamfordpublicschools.org/content/64/1...

Makes it seem like everyone has a fair shot at them, which just isn't true. I'm now a little older and a little wiser to the ways of the Stamford public school system, but every year, you are going to get new, unsuspecting and naive parents like I was believing in something that just isn't true.

Publius wrote:

Nobody is being forced to do anything "against their will". Every community has to deal with assigning students to schools on some basis. The most common basis is by street. But when schools become unbalanced, whether racially or socio-economically in some communities, or just by student capacity in every community, a community has to take action to correct the situation.
Whenever a community, through its school board, acts to "redistrict" students, the parents of those redistricted students object, often vociferously. They have every right to object. But a BOE has a responsibility to redistrict to correct overcrowding or to correct poorly balanced populations. Stamford should not be solving overcrowding problems by continually adding portable classrooms top some schools, while other schools have plenty of room.
Almost every community has districted its schools to assign students by street. To cal that "forcing students to go to a school against their free will" would mean that over 90% of students in this country are going to a school against their free will.
Although there were times when i felt my parents were sending me to school against my free will, im not sure that is the same idea.

and switch, problem is when you switch districts without ANY notification.(and no gossiping with the PFO president is not notification)

People who bought homes on Jan 15 in the Meadowpark area, did not know that the BOE had already decided to FORCE them to Hart. The dog and pony show fooled no one on the 22nd of Jan.

In addition, the whole magnet system that exists and extra funding is justified, "to balance the SPS". Is a crule joke.

Quite simply my children will be homeschooled before I bus them downtown.

Publius wrote:

Nobody is being forced to do anything "against their will". Every community has to deal with assigning students to schools on some basis. The most common basis is by street. But when schools become unbalanced, whether racially or socio-economically in some communities, or just by student capacity in every community, a community has to take action to correct the situation.
Whenever a community, through its school board, acts to "redistrict" students, the parents of those redistricted students object, often vociferously. They have every right to object. But a BOE has a responsibility to redistrict to correct overcrowding or to correct poorly balanced populations. Stamford should not be solving overcrowding problems by continually adding portable classrooms top some schools, while other schools have plenty of room.
Almost every community has districted its schools to assign students by street. To cal that "forcing students to go to a school against their free will" would mean that over 90% of students in this country are going to a school against their free will.
Although there were times when i felt my parents were sending me to school against my free will, im not sure that is the same idea.

magnet programs should be dulicated at the "undesiriable" schools (like Hart, no Spanish there).

In addtion I have asked the BOE to look at open magnet programs like Montclair NJ and Whiteplains, NY.

This BOE seems to only accept input and get research information from it's own staff, and DOES NOT share that inforation with the public at large.

"When they own the information, they can bend it all they want." -J. Mayer

How about a wrote:

lawyer? Is it leagal to use more tax funds for a magnet school when we are shut out?

Guys, let's keep it in perspective...it's just elementary school. I mean, how good was your own elementary school? Do you know? Did your parents know? How much impact did it really have on your life?

As important as this seems to you now, in a couple of years your kids will be out of elementary school, mixing with many more kids in middle school. And then ALL the kids in Stamford funnel into just 4 public high schools (SHS, WHS, AITE and Stamford Academy.) Your kids will meet up with LOTS of different kids, from all parts of the city.

Of course we all want the best for our kids, but believe me, the Westover/Toquam kids are not doing better in middle school or high school than all the other kids--kids from the "failing" schools are in the zero cog at all the middle schools and plenty of honors classes in high school. You'll see when you get there. This is all so overblown it's silly.