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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 11-16-2004-7aORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: November 16, 2004 Action Agenda Item No. 7_Q SUBJECT: Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools "Opening of School" Report DEPARTMENT: Manager PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): 10/17/04 CH Herald Editorial INFORMATION CONTACT: Extracts from CHCCS Rod Visser, ext 2300 "Opening of School" Report TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To review and discuss information about student enrollment and withdrawals from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, BACKGROUND: At their October 7, 2004 meeting, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education received their annual report from CHCCS staff regarding the opening of schools for the 2004-05 academic year. The "Opening of School" report prompted an editorial that appeared shortly thereafter in the Chapel Hill Herald. The Board of Commissioners subsequently requested additional information about the issues mentioned in the editorial about student withdrawals from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system. County and CHCCS staff conferred about this request, and have attached several charts from the "Opening of Schools° report that provide additional details about student gains and losses, CHCCS staff will attend this November 16 BOCC meeting to explain data related to new and withdrawn students, and other questions that the Board may have about the CHCCS "Opening of School" report. The entire "Opening of Schools" report from October 7, 2004 can be viewed under the "Board Agendas and Attachments" section of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School website at: http://www.chccs.kl2 naus/Board/10072004BoardAgenda/OofSR pdf FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact directly related to this report. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board receive the report for information only. heraldsun.com: printer-friendly story (back] herald -~ sun Students are leaving the city schools The Herald-Sun October 17, 2004 .3:11 pm The "Opening of School Report October 2004" put together by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is 69 pages long and chock-full of interesting tidbits about the local district. For instance, on page 39 you can find out that 15 percent more school lunches were eaten at Chapel Hill High than the year before, but 21 percent fewer students availed themselves of the same dining opportunity at Carrboro Elementazy last yeaz. There is information about bus ridership -- Smith Middle School had the highest percentage of bus riders; Scroggs Elementary the lowest -- and about the growth over a decade of the district's exceptional education program. And there, tucked away in a chart on page 8 is the information that since the end of classes last year, 953 students have withdrawn from the city schools, Even without context, in a volume filled with numbers, it's a figure that,jumps out at you. It means around 9 percent of the district's student body -- neazly 1 out of 10 students -- left the school system since last year. But the context, of course, is that this always has been somewhat of a transient community and families do come and go. And around 900 of the students who left went to other public schools. Only 48 withdrew to go to non-public or charter schools. But much of what could be useful context is still missing. Are the overall numbers increasing -- that is, aze proportionally more students withdrawing from the city schools? Administrators think so, but aren't sure. Is the number of students who went to private or charter schools increasing? Why? Are the students who left to go to other public schools withdrawing because of changed family circumstances or because the families prefer other systems? Are the families staying in the azea but shipping their students off to another district? And most importantly, if there's a trend, what can the district do to reverse it? The school system doesn't yet have the answers.. But the district is, at least, beginning to ask the questions. With the series of issues that have bedeviled the district in recent yeazs --possible merger, minority student achievement, gifted education and now high school reform -- Lincoln Center needs to determine quickly if the withdrawals are a reflection of concern, or an anomaly, a coincidence. http://www.heraldsun,com/tools/printfriendly.efm?StoryID=533807 10/18/2004 heraldsun,com: printer-friendly story The state's premier public school system must Find those answers or it risks no longer remaining the state's premier public school system, URI, for this article: http://www.herald-sun. com/opinion/chhedits/57-533807.htm1 © Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. 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