San Francisco Mails Out School Assignments For Next School Year
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - A new formula to make it easier for students to attend a public school close to home turned out to be less popular than school district officials anticipated.
Just 25 percent of parents listed a neighborhood school among their top choices on the 2011-2012 applications, despite vocal complaints from parents groups that children were being assigned to schools in other parts of town and that siblings often wound up attending different schools.
"What's important to them—language pathways, K-8 schools and being able to go to school with older siblings," said Orla O'Keefe, who helps oversee the assignment process for the San Francisco Unified School District.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
Unpopular schools like Miraloma Elementary School became sought after placements, a shift that deputy superintendent Richard Carranza said signals an end to longstanding misperceptions about the quality of the curriculum at some schools.
"This also has to do with the perception of what is a good school and what is a quality school. And it varies across the city," he said.
In the placement offers mailed out Friday, slightly fewer kindergarteners were assigned to the parents' first or second choice school.
Last year 70 percent were selected for one of their parents top two choices. This year that fell to 67 percent.
And more parents applied for early placement, suggesting a spike in enrollment when school starts in the fall.
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