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Southsider2k12
post Mar 23 2009, 11:58 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=51035.89

QUOTE
MCAS schedules redistricting meetings
MICHIGAN CITY - The Michigan City Area Schools' Redistricting Advisory Committee has scheduled community forums at 10 school buildings over the next two weeks to present its proposals for changing elementary and middle school enrollment boundaries.

The meetings will be at all elementary schools and the Eastport Early Learning Center to give parents of elementary and middle school students and the general public several opportunities to view and comment on the plans.

All forums will be from 6 to 7 p.m. at the following locations:

• Wednesday, March 25 - Coolspring Elementary School and Marsh Elementary School.

• Thursday, March 26 - Edgewood Elementary School and Joy Elementary School.

• Monday, March 30 - Knapp Elementary School and Niemann Elementary School.

• Tuesday, March 31 - Eastport Early Learning Center and Springfield Elementary School.

• Wednesday, April 1 - Lake Hills Elementary School and Pine Elementary School.

Proposed plans will be available for viewing on the Michigan City Area Schools Web site (www.mcas.k12.in.us) on Tuesday, March 24.

In addition, the MCAS Board of Trustees will conduct work sessions on redistricting at 6 p.m. on Mondays March 23 and April 13.

The board will receive a final proposal from the Redistricting Advisory Committee for first reading at its regularly scheduled meeting on April 14 and is expected to act on the proposal April 28. Families will then be notified of any changes that impact their children.

Redistricting will take effect for the 2009-2010 school year. MCAS is adjusting enrollment boundaries following completion of a three-phase building project. This project included renovations of three middle schools and Marsh Elementary, and the construction of two new elementary buildings, Lake Hills and Pine. Lake Hills opened Jan. 22 and the new Pine will open for the 2009-2010 school year.

For additional information about redistricting, visit www.mcas.k12.in.us. For those without Internet access, information can be obtained at the MCAS Administration Building, 408 S. Carroll Ave., Michigan City.
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Southsider2k12
post Mar 24 2009, 01:33 PM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=21936

QUOTE
School redistricting debate heats up

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - Anyone who wants to inject a bit of fire and emotion into a School Board meeting need only whisper one word: redistricting.

About 20 people concerned about the issue attended Monday night's Michigan City Area Schools board work session.

The only ones who voiced concern about the proposals were from Coolspring Elementary School.

One woman, Katie Herrbach, said she would move her children to La Porte schools if it was determined they would be moved from Coolspring.

"We would have to take them all the way to town, to Joy School," she said.

Another woman seemed concerned about other students moving into Coolspring. She said she favored neighborhood schools.

"Only the children living in the Coolspring community should attend Coolspring School," she said.

The maps to reveal potential redistricting were put together by a committee headed by Kevin McGuire, MCAS director of instructional technology, and Kevin Neafie, director of transportation. McGuire presented three maps to represent three possibilities.

He also repeated some of the guidelines the committee used when making its decisions: move as few students as possible; each school should reflect the community (in terms of racial and socio-economic status); students should spend as little time as possible on buses.

In addition, the committee thought about the school buildings and tried to balance enrollment with capacity, to see that each school had music and art rooms and at least two computer labs.

"Why do you need to know the free and reduced lunch status of students?" board member Beryle Burgwald asked.

One of the guidelines is to make the schools look more like the community the school corporation serves, he said.

Burgwald wondered whether that guideline would pass muster with the Supreme Court.

Bringing a few more students who are entitled to a free and reduced lunch to a school brings more federal dollars as well, such as money for a breakfast program, he added.

Within the MCAS, about 50 percent of the students are entitled to free and reduced lunches, he added.

"I am appalled the schools would be redistricted according to which students get free and reduced lunches," one mother said.

She favored neighborhood schools.

"Only the children living in the Coolspring community should attend Coolspring School," she said.

Former City Council member Virginia Martin, a driver trainer for the MCAS, said she was tired of seeing city neighborhood schools being closed. She named Park School and Eastport, when it was an elementary school, as well as the old Central School.

"We're tired of bussing our children all the way to Coolspring and Springfield," she said. "Maybe you could send your children into the city," she told the Coolspring group.

MCAS board views redistricting options
By Deborah Sederberg

Staff Writer

MICHIGAN CITY - No decision has been made, but Michigan City Area Schools board members now have color maps and black-and-white charts to help them in their redistricting tasks.

Kevin McGuire, MCAS director of instructional technology, coaxed all the statistics from the computers and put them into easy-to-understand charts which he distributed to the board and others at the board's Monday work session.

The numbers say, for example, that just 48 percent of Coolspring students are entitled to free or reduced lunches, while 88 percent at Marsh and 87 percent at Lake Hills (formerly Mullen) get free or reduced lunches. In terms of ethnic breakdown, at Coolspring, 31 percent of the students are non-white, while at Lake Hills the number is 79 percent and at Springfield it is 19 percent.

McGuire presented three proposed redistricting plans, labeled Plan A, Plan B and Plan C.

According to current numbers, the average elementary student lives 2.13 miles from school. Plans A and B would put the average student 1.72 miles from home and Plan C 1.99 miles from home.

On the other hand, Plan C moves the highest number of students - 1,187 - while Plan A would move 615 and Plan B would move 688.

As for the middle schools, Barker now has an enrollment of 398; according to Plan A, it would be 394; according to B, 384; according to C, 412.

Elston's enrollment now is 642; according to A, it would be 630; according to B, 655; according to C, 650.

Krueger now has 396 students enrolled; according to Plan A, it would be 412; according to B, 398; according to C, 375.

q

A series of meetings on redistricting will begin Wednesday at Coolspring and Marsh elementary schools. All meetings are from 6 to 7 p.m.

Other meetings are:

• Thursday, March 26 - Edgewood Elementary School and Joy Elementary School.

• Monday, March 30 - Knapp Elementary School and Niemann Elementary School.

• Tuesday, March 31 - Eastport Early Learning Center and Springfield Elementary School.

• Wednesday, April 1 - Lake Hills Elementary School and Pine Elementary School.

Other redistricting information, including the maps, are available at the MCAS Web site, www.mcas.k12.in.us. On the home page, scroll down to the Redistricting banner and click on it.

A regular board meeting is at 6 tonight at the administration building.
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Ang
post Mar 25 2009, 10:33 AM
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The problem: Parent's feel that their children should be entitled to go to a certain school and that other children should not be allowed to attend because of socio-economic status--or some such other crap which really boils down to, "I am better than you so your kids shouldn't be allowed to go to school with my kids"

The Opinion: (my own, of course) People need to worry about the quality of education their children are receiving, not what kids go to the same school. I realize that Coolspring is an excellent school, and Carolyn Manual is the bomb as far as Principals go, but come on people.....

The Solution: OPEN DISTRICTING!!! I know I've told you about here and how the schools work. It is really a simple program. Sure, some of the "better" schools have waiting lists, but they do take priority for people who live near the schools or have had older siblings attend that school. It works really really well, and there are no problems at all. The best part is that if you don't like the school your children attend--YOU CAN MOVE THEM TO ANOTHER ONE!!


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Southsider2k12
post Mar 25 2009, 11:37 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=21966

QUOTE
Is it really about race?

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - No one who spoke against redistricting in the Michigan City Area Schools has talked about the color of any child's skin, but several black community leaders have seen racial issues at the heart of the discussions.

The plan to redistrict came five years ago when the facilities committee determined that after adding a wing to Michigan City High School, remodeling the three middle schools and building new Pine and a new Lake Hills (formerly Mullen School), it would be necessary to redistrict.

At a Monday meeting when Coolspring parents voiced their concerns over moving their children to different schools, several talked about community schools and said they thought of Coolspring as a community school.

Virginia Martin, a driver trainer for the Michigan City Area Schools and a former member of the Michigan City Common Council, said she too supports the concept of community schools. She said she is tired of seeing city neighborhood schools close. Park School, Eastport School and the old Central School were community schools until they closed.

Wes Scully, president of the NAACP, made a similar comment at the Tuesday school board meeting. "When the inner city schools were shut down, there was no big crowd," he said.

Of the three proposed maps, Scully said, "I know a lot of people reject plan C." Plan C moves the most children, 1,187, but Plan C, Scully said, "is the one that gives equal education to all children." It's also the plan that puts children nearest their homes.

Hazel Thomas, a member of the Michigan City Public Library Board, a commissioner of the Michigan City Housing Authority and a member of the redistricting committee, also has been sad to see the city schools closed. She can't help but wonder why some parents so strongly object to bussing their children into the city.

"Of course, there's racism," in some of the talk about redistricting, she believes.

For years, Thomas and Martin said, residents of the city have seen their children bussed to Coolspring, Springfield or Pine schools.

"They were bussed away from everything they knew," Martin noted.

At Tuesday's regular meeting of the Michigan City Area Schools Board, Michael Mack, a member of the redistricting committee, said he has been pleased with the education his children are getting at Knapp School. As a member of the committee, he said he saw how hard committee members worked. Responding to a charge from Dennis Metheny, who said the committee was not open enough about its work, Mack said, he saw no secret agendas, but he did see a lot of people who were concerned about children.

Martin said children who live in what she calls "the triangle" near the Lakeland neighborhood, live in an area that has been caught in redistricting moves several times. The triangle includes Martin Luther King Drive, U.S. 12 and Karwick Road and "all the little roads" in that area. Now, those children go to Springfield School. They pass Niemann School to get there.

Both Martin and Thomas said children who move to new schools will need support systems there. They need counselors and perhaps social workers and people to help them get adjusted, they said.

"Inner city kids don't have community schools. They don't have inner city schools," she noted.

"But it's really all about the kids and giving them all the support we can give.
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Southsider2k12
post Mar 26 2009, 12:36 PM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=21973

QUOTE
New school boundaries disruptive to kids
My 7-year-old daughter goes to Edgewood School two miles from our house. Under all three redistricting plans she would have to go to Coolspring, which is five miles away.

With this proposed change, I will lose my sitter who takes her to school and has watched her since she was 1 year old. I would need to find after-school care because I would never be able to get to Coolspring, after leaving work, in time to pick her up after school.

According to the Michigan City Area Schools Web site Knapp, Edgewood, Joy, Mullen and Springfield schools are the only schools that offer the before- and after-school Safe Harbor program.

And I don't want her to ride a school bus. I don't want her subjected to a lot of problems with the other children's language and behaviors.

A new school can be anxiety-provoking as there are no familiar faces, routines are different, and the school layout is different. The psychological effects of being forced to change schools on a child in this age group are very similar to what they go through when their parents divorce or they lose a close family member.

Her father and I have watched her grow to be more independent in her surroundings. She has made friends and has ties to the staff at Edgewood. This is going to affect the emotional stability, psyches and academics for her and a lot of other kids if the redistricting is enforced. This proposed redistricting is not in the best interest of most families.

It sounds as if they are putting government funding for the schools before what is in the best interest of our children.

Do "we the people" even have a voice? In the past it seems School Board members have had their minds made up on major decisions before they bring it to the public's attention.

I am requesting a clause to "grandfather" our children into their current schools. Set up guidelines to make it possible.

I urge the School Board to take seriously our concerns about transportation times, sensible boundaries and making this the least disruptive to my child and me. The proposed redistricting gives the 10 or so children in my subdivision only one option and that is to go to Coolspring School.

Helen Bailey

Michigan City
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Ang
post Mar 26 2009, 02:08 PM
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Uh....
Baby sitter transfer?

People who whine without first looking at other options really tick me off!

Sorry. Just had to throw that out there.


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Southsider2k12
post Mar 27 2009, 09:47 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=42843.49

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Forget boundaries, have school choice
If were going to think outside of the box with our school system, let's go all out and have a school of choice. Forget the boundaries. Let's really open it up. Let's do some exciting challenges. School of choice would make us look where the problems are and help this community fix them. The problems are for all of us, and we all need to address them.

School of choice would open your eyes and ask why are some more popular or some just plain better. It's not a poor/rich thing. It will put responsibility and accountability back in our community.

Roger Willoughby

Michigan City


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Southsider2k12
post Mar 27 2009, 09:48 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=21996

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Schools created redistricting problem
I too am a parent of two Coolspring children. We have gone to all the field days, bought all the T-shirts and all the yearbooks. We are proud of our school and put education first and pay our way through school with our pay checks. My children have only known Coolspring as their school and after coming home from last night's meeting and having to tell my children that their new school may be Joy School next year, well it was not a pretty scene.

I put a positive spin on things, about how we have passed that school many times and you have always wanted to stop and play on the playground. My 8-year-old daughter looked me in the eyes and said why? Why do we have to leave just to let other kids move from their school to our school? These kids won't want to do it either."

This is from an 8-year-old. It would appear that my 8-year-old has put more thought into this plan than the school board and the committee that played with crayons to draw these A, B, C plans up.

Last night's meeting was an eye-opener for me and many parents, and I urge all parents to pack these meetings full and ask the hard questions. We were asked to not make statements personal but after hearing what one of the committee members had to say, you made this personal! You stood up there on your soap box, proud to have colored these maps and told your leader to go back and make a plan to make "these people" happy.

These people are proud parents of children who are about to have their lives uprooted over funding from free lunches and reduced book rental and so forth, and let's not forget I-Step scores. So I ask this person from the committee, how are your children affected by the colored maps you made? Oh that's right, they're not!

These are not good plans and it is not our fault the school system screwed up and built new schools in locations where there were not children enough to fill them. You made the problem in the inner city, so you can fill it with your inner city ideas and leave our children alone here in the country.

Lastly, I have to be play the bad guy to my children and tell them that we don't have a say in where you go to school anymore, townships mean nothing anymore. No, I won't do it! You "the committee and leaders" can answer the questions of those who are most affected by this. The children! When is that meeting going to be?

Carolyn Kibby

Coolspring Township
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Ang
post Mar 27 2009, 01:18 PM
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Hmmm....

Is Roger Willoughby a member here?

I ask because it seems a lot of stuff we post here ends up in Roger's letters to the N-D.


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davew
post Mar 29 2009, 11:33 PM
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I have said it one, and I sure that I will say it a 1000 times. Our schools suck. I have said in on WIMS and other stations. They will continue to suck until parents quit being lazy and take an interest in the kids. My daughter, who is just going into kindergarten, can read, do math and write. Is she smarter that other kids, yeah she is, but it is because my wife and I (mostly the wife) works with her to help her. She is not some brainless kid in front of the tv or the computer.

Parents who rent out halls for kids to dance like whores, but never talk to a teacher are part of the problem. ON WIMS, I commented that we have options. We do. We can afford to send her to a private school, and at this point we are sure she will be going to Edgewood that is just blocks from our home, but if she is going to be bussed to wherever. I doubt that she will be going to a public school.

I am here to tell you now. I will be the biggest PITA to the teacher, but the biggest cheerleader as well. I want my kid to learn and I want her to respect the teacher and school. I was taught respect with a paddle at Landmark. I wish we could have corporal punishment back in school. Life seemed so simple then. You did wrong you got whacked. Now, if you do that you get sued.

Until the parents step up and take an interest in education; we will have lackluster schools.

But, really, it is just my problem for another year or so.

Hey, that is my opinion. I could just be wrong, but I doubt it.
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Southsider2k12
post Mar 30 2009, 08:25 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=37646.09

QUOTE
Provide quality education, then redistrict
The meeting at Coolspring Elementary Wednesday made me realize how little I know and fully understand about the rules, regulations and educational definitions of our state/federal educational system. It also made me realize we are not providing our community with a solid and quality education.

Before the meeting I utilized the tools provided by my own Michigan City Area School Web site www.mcas.k12.in.us. I found the redistricting information icon, and after viewing the strategic plan and participating in my local meeting I found the following:

Some of our children will be relocated.

I found my Adequate Yearly Progress report on my relocation school, Joy, under District Data/DOE Test Scores and Reports. My redistricting option report was not good. When I saw my redistricting location had a failed AYP for the past four years I was devastated.

I urge you to check your child's future and pray it is better than their current situation.

I then pulled all the AYP data on MCAS and found many of our shools have failed AYP. The elementary schools that passed are Pine, Coolspring and Lake Hills. Let us share their passing teachers' secrets with other MCAS teachers!

Parents and teachers of all MCAS do not stand for failure! (Especially Joy parents!)

I believe our School Board has failed MCAS and that our first goal should not be redistricting. Our first goal is to provide a quality education at each facility. Communities should demand that all facilities PASS AYP! Then you can talk to our community about redistricting.

Strangely enough after sitting through our presentation plan on redistricting , I noticed that the plan

had no closing statement or benefits page at the end. Any good strategic plan comes with an outline of ideas, statistics and list of the benefits to our community and a timeline once the plan is implemented for the benefits to start working.

Unfortunately the redistricting team forgot this major point.

I am still not sold on this plan. I do not believe that putting our children on a bus will make our school system smarter!

I know there are so many other issues. Quality education is what stood out for me.

Proud mother of a straight A student of Coolspring,

Jamie Miller

Coolspring Township
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Southsider2k12
post Mar 30 2009, 08:27 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=37646.09

QUOTE
Redistricting confusing
I am writing to the newspaper because I am so confused with the new redistricting plans for our schools. At least 100 parents and teachers attended the community forum at Coolspring School. Kevin McGuire stood alone in the front of the parents and teachers and explained the new maps. Members of the redistricting team were present, however they sat in the back. I noticed two school board members as well. Notes were taken by a Michigan City Area Schools member sitting in front. However, she closed her notepad after a couple of parents spoke. It seems as if we were there to talk to each other, not the committee.

This meeting became emotional for some and fact-finding for others. Although all maps were questioned, the last map, that the MCAS redistricting blog says was put together fast, is the most confusing. This takes neighborhood children to a different school only because the committee is trying to make all schools equal with free and reduced lunch programs. What?

We have read the Indiana Department of Education files to learn actual facts. We see where the children are passing ISTEP and we see the schools that have shown much improvement in ISTEP and those that are not. The committee is not looking at these facts.

We have read information on how important community schools are to the health and well being of our children, however the committee is not looking at this.

Our Coolspring school is far from perfect. We have had mold, water and crowding issues. We are not unhappy that the new Pine School is a wonderful "state of the art" school. Change is always going to happen and some families will be part of this move.

We are unhappy that families within the Coolspring School rural area will have their children driven miles away, past our school to another just because we need to balance free and reduced lunch.

Children in the Coolspring area will now take a bus to Pine, Joy or Springfield. Edgewood childen will take a bus out to Coolspring. It sounds like the kids will all wave to each other as the buses pass.

The board needs to read the MCAS blogs, look at the maps, ask for Map C to be labeled with street addresses, pass the maps out to the schools since so many parents don't realize that their children will be moved, ask how many people on the redistricting committee have a child that will be moved as the maps show, and last, remember that this is supposed to be about the kids, not how much more funding we can get with the free and reduced lunch program.

Kathy Callan

Parent of Children at Coolspring and Barker
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Southsider2k12
post Mar 30 2009, 08:29 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=37646.09

QUOTE
Redistricting tearing kids from their school
My husband and I are truly upset over the redistricting of our Coolspring Township. Based upon on the maps located on the Michigan City Area Schools Web site, both of our children are affected. My younger daughter attends Coolspring School and my older daughter attends Barker Middle School. Both are excellent students. We live in Coolspring Township and chose this area to attend Coolspring School/Barker Middle School. Coolspring is our neighborhood school, less than five miles from our home.

We may now be asked to bus our children to Krueger, which is clear on the other side of town for us, and to either Joy School or Springfield School. Why are my children being removed from the school they love, while children are then being bused from the city to the county? This makes absolutely no sense to us.

It appears from all the data that the reason for this redistricting is to pull children who score well and place them into schools that are in jeopardy of being taken over by the state. It also seems that Coolspring has not enough minority in our school or enough free and reduced lunch. The reason we have a majority of whites in our school is because we live in the county and it is majority white.

After attending several meetings and researching the data on the MCAS Web site, it is now known that the main reason for this redistricting is to allow schools to become Title 1 [underperforming], which allows for more government funding.

Coolspring School parents are fighting for our children to remain in the school in their neighborhood ... not to be bused farther away just to help other schools with their test scores.

The board should be made aware that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling has set precedence that it is illegal to bus students based on ethnicity and poverty level to benefit the school corporation financially. We understand that redistricting needs to take place but not by disrupting the neighborhood communities and over 1,100 children.

Any decision to redistrict is arbitrary and capricious and without substantial evidence in the record to support it! How can families have faith in our city and school system when the school system continues to keep redistricting the boundary lines!

We chose Coolspring Township for a reason ... a wonderful school with great teachers ... and now my children are in jeopardy of losing the schools they have grown to love and thrive in. How does this justify the busing of these children farther from their homes? The extra expense in gas and wear and tear on the roads and buses ... the time these children would spend on the bus and not in their homes with their families ... getting up earlier for school and returning later in the evening?

Please contact your board members in opposition to the three plans proposed ... attend the next board meeting. Even if this does not affect your family directly, it will affect a fellow friend or family in your area.

Jeff and Amy Koza

La Porte
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Southsider2k12
post Mar 30 2009, 08:30 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=22036

QUOTE
Coolspring penalized for its success
My husband and I moved from Ohio Street to County Road 450 North in Coolspring Township three years ago when our son was 3 so that he would attend a decent school within the Michigan City school district. We did not want our son going to a below average school, and Coolspring Elementary offered him a great start to his education.

We attended the redistricting meeting at Coolspring on Wednesday night and I am very upset and, quite frankly, mad as hell! After seeing the plans A, B and C and listening to Kevin McGuire's and the committee's "plans," I was quite upset to see that Plans B or C would move my son to Joy school, but Plan A would keep him at Coolspring. However, according to Kevin McGuire and the committee members, Plan C seems to be the best plan, because it will create a more equal socioeconomic status at Coolspring and Springfield.

The main objective for these plans was to move as few children as possible, however, Plan C moves the most children, over 1,400 between the elementary and middle school, when it is said and done. So how is this better?

I have been following the news articles about the redistricting and they are right, it is about race! Since my son is white and we live in Coolspring Township and pay for his lunches out of our own pocket, he is no longer entitled to go to the school in the township where we pay property taxes! But children who live in the government-assisted homes, who do not pay property taxes in Coolspring Township (or anywhere else for that matter), who receive free/reduced lunches, get to go to Coolspring and boot my son to Joy.

The Michigan City Area School District, as a whole, has failed to pass AYP according to the Indiana Department of Education, however, Coolspring is not one of those schools that caused them to fail. According to the Indiana Department of Education, Coolspring's status was "exemplary," but other schools in the district are in on a "watch" status such as Joy or on "probation."

My husband and I work hard for our money. We purchased our home in Coolspring Township because we like the community of Michigan City, and we both work in Michigan City. Now our options are to sell our home and move to another school district (maybe we can move to La Porte and send our son to Crichfield with Kevin McGuire's kids) or put our son into a private school or a charter school. It is very sad to tell my 5-year-old that there is a possibility he will not be at Coolspring next year. Carolyn Kibby is right, why isn't anyone asking the children ["Schools created redistricting problem," Friday]?

By the way, the committee member that got up Wednesday night and said she was "all for Plan C," how did you even end up on the committee when your kids are in high school? The high school isn't being affected by this, only the elementary and middle school children, so why are you even involved in this?

Kim Antisdel

Coolspring Township
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Southsider2k12
post Mar 31 2009, 10:50 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=22095

QUOTE
Test score numbers misleading
As a teacher at Joy School, I feel I must respond to the letter by Jamie Miller Saturday ["Provide quality education, then redistrict"]. The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data cited in Mrs. Miller's letter, while accurate, is misleading. For schools to make AYP under No Child Left Behind they must meet one of two criteria:

• Meet all performance, participation and attendance/graduation targets for the overall student population and individual student groups (often called "subgroups") with 30 or more students. OR

• Meet attendance/graduation rate targets and reduce the number of students not meeting performance targets by 10 percent (Safe Harbor Provision).

Individual subgroups for schools are white students, Asian students, Hispanic students, Native-American students, African-American students, Free/Reduced Lunch Students, Limited English Proficiency students and Special Education Students. If a school has fewer than 30 students in any of these subgroups, those students' scores are not counted in the overall AYP. If a school has any of these individual subgroups not making AYP, the school is flagged. This is exactly what happened at Joy School and what Mrs. Miller is referring to when she stated that Joy has not made AYP for the last four years.

Joy School is the only elementary school in Michigan City that has a high enough population of special education students to report them as a subgroup. No other elementary school has a special education subgroup large enough to report. Almost all the elementary special education classes are at Joy School. Mrs. Miller is correct when she states that Joy School has not made AYP for the last four years, but these same four years were the years Joy's special education subgroup grew big enough to report in our overall school AYP. Before 2004, Joy School made AYP.

Perhaps it would be better to look at the overall percentage of students at a school passing ISTEP in both language arts and math, but please know that this overall percentage is based on all students, even special education students, taking the test. According to the School Data/DOE Test Scores and Reports the percentages for each Michigan City elementary school are as follows:

Springfield, 72.7 percent.

Coolspring, 72.0 percent.

Joy, 66.0 percent.

Edgewood, ,62.7 percent.

Marsh, 61.9 percent.

Lake Hills 61.7 percent.

Pine, 57.7 percent.

Knapp, 54.2 percent.

Niemann, 51.6 percent.

As a Michigan City public school teacher, I work hard to educate every student in my class, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds. Mrs. Miller's statement that Coolspring, Pine, and Lake Hills should "share their passing teachers' secrets with other MCAS teachers" is unfair. Michigan City Area Schools teachers regularly collaborate within and among schools for the betterment of all the students in Michigan City.

Pam Jones

Fifth Grade Teacher

Joy Elementary

Michigan City
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Ang
post Mar 31 2009, 11:43 AM
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Did I read that wrong or did Ms. Jones state that Joy school has not met AYP because they now count the Special Ed students? Is she saying that Special Ed is what's causing them to fail?

I'm really confused. Can someone clear that up for me? JHeath, What say you?


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post Mar 31 2009, 12:07 PM
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QUOTE(Ang @ Mar 31 2009, 12:43 PM) *

Did I read that wrong or did Ms. Jones state that Joy school has not met AYP because they now count the Special Ed students? Is she saying that Special Ed is what's causing them to fail?

I'm really confused. Can someone clear that up for me? JHeath, What say you?


I am not Jenn, but I can speak to this.

Essentially this is true. With No Child Left Behind, they literally mean NO child left behind. Every single student in the school system is tested and is expected to be testing at their respective grade level, no matter what their handicaps or disabilities. Michigan City as a school district has a much higher concentration of these types of students than most school systems. Most of this is due to socio-economic levels of the community as a whole. It's also no secret that there are more of these students in the "city" schools as opposed to the "country" schools, also because of socio-economic considerations. Looking at the school scores, it sure looks to me like the schools with higher concentrations of poor students are also performing at the lowest levels by test scores.
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Heather Collins
post Mar 31 2009, 08:03 PM
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I am here to reach out to the community of Michigan City. Please help to keep Eastport open. Here is an awesome program that will only help our educational system. Eastport takes our communities children, all of them, no matter the neighborhood, the race, the religion, the financial background, and teaches them. Eastport makes our children want to learn. We talk about the scores from all of the different schools, well Eastport is the first step to changing those scores. Our children, our future, our community deserves to keep this solid foundation in tack. Three and four year olds are most influenced at this age. This is the age where we need all of the little brains to thrive. You see the children of Eastport, go to school and enjoy it, because they enjoy it they want to learn. They are not intimidated by older students who might not share that same attitude. The children will take the education they receive and the thriving attitudes with them to the next level when it is time. The elementary schools will slowly become populated with graduating Eastport students, the junior highs will get a turn in time, our high school will once again unite these children as one community again, and that is what will make a difference. My son deserves this, as do his peers.
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Ang
post Mar 31 2009, 09:02 PM
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Welcome to the board, Heather!


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Heather Collins
post Mar 31 2009, 09:19 PM
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Mr. James L. Kintzele, Sr.
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Dr. Vidya S. Kora
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[b]Mrs. Kathryn S. Lee
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