This document contains detailed information about the West Side School EQUAL CHOICE issue created by recent School Board actions.

The goal of our group is to have the system of choosing the method of instruction for elementary school children be EQUAL for ALL Batavia School District residents.

We have been told that of the six new attendance boundary regions, the West Side School attendance boundary residents are the only ones that will not be allowed to receive the conventional method of instruction at their attendance boundary school . This is the definition of the EQUAL CHOICE issue. We want to have this unique restriction on the West Side School attendance boundary residents removed and EQUAL CHOICE restored.

Within this document the term "conventional method of instruction" refers to the type of teaching method in each of the elementary schools in Batavia except for McWayne. This encompasses a large variety of methods, from very traditional to Multiple Intelligence without the label. The term "alternate method of instruction" refers to the type of teaching method currently followed at McWayne, strictly focused on Multiple Intelligence and labeled as such.

This information is divided into the following five sections :

1. a full explanation of the West Side School EQUAL CHOICE issue,
1. a description of a proposal to resolve the issue,
1. an offer to meet with each board member to discuss any proposal which will resolve our issue,
1. a request for information from the School Board members on how best to proceed from this point, and
1. an illustrative hypothetical example proposal that can be used to better understand our situation.

At the 4/4/00 School Board Meeting, two motions were carried involving the West Side School.

One motion established new attendance boundary regions for the entire district to accommodate the introduction of the new West Side and East Side Schools. There was no indication within this motion that any of the new attendance boundary schools would be administered differently than any other school.

The other motion established that the alternate method of instruction program be moved into the new West Side School. There was no indication within this motion that the conventional method of instruction would not be available at this attendance boundary school.

As a result of comments of board members at board meetings, and discussions with board members outside of board meetings, we are operating under the following assumption :

The entire West Side School is assigned to the alternate method of instruction. Therefore, the West Side School will be the only attendance boundary school where the conventional method of instruction will not be available to its attendance boundary residents.

We would like to have this condition officially confirmed or denied by the School Board in order to clarify the situation to the entire community.

Notes:

• The assignment of the entire West Side School to the alternate instruction method essentially results in a configuration where there are five attendance boundary schools and one community alternative school. We do not believe that this was the intended configuration of the voters that approved the referendum authorizing the construction of the West Side School.

• We have also been told that in order to receive the conventional method of instruction, West Side school attendance boundary residents must apply to the school board, which will assign them to another school. We have not seen any official information of exactly how this process would function or even what kind of guidelines or factors would be involved in making these assignments.

• The EQUAL CHOICE issue can be fully discussed and resolved WITHOUT discussing merits, characteristics, or opinions of the Multiple Intelligence alternative instruction method. The EQUAL CHOICE issue is independent of the type of alternative instruction method available at the West Side School. In fact, we feel that discussion about the operation of the alternate method of instruction is a distraction to addressing the EQUAL CHOICE issue. We have encountered a wide range of positions about the alternate method of instruction in discussing School Board actions among ourselves, and with other members of the community. We request that discussion about the alternate method of instruction be deferred until after the EQUAL CHOICE issue has been resolved. We would be ready to enter discussions with you about the alternate method of instruction at that time.

• In direct contrast to the wide range of positions about the alternate method of instruction, we have encountered nothing but a focused consensus in support of providing EQUAL CHOICE to the West Side school attendance boundary residents. We are circulating a petition across the entire school district community requesting the school board to restore EQUAL CHOICE. We were not able to execute a full accounting of all petition sheets at this time, but a partial count of signatures totals to over 250. A more significant statistic is that well over 90% of the people asked to sign the petition, agree to sign. In addition, we have executed a phone survey of over 100 families whose children currently attend H.C. Storm and Alice Gustafson schools, but are within the West Side School attendance boundary. In this survey, 96% indicated that they want to be able to choose the teaching method that their children will receive.

• The EQUAL CHOICE issue can NOT be resolved by ANY component of a "Transition Plan". The scope of the EQUAL CHOICE issue is not limited to the current Alice Gustafson School and H. C. Storm School families with children that are "transitioning" into the West Side School attendance boundary. The scope of the issue involves a policy that affects ALL current and future West Side School attendance boundary residents including :

1. the families that will be building new residences within the West Side attendance boundary region representing the 300 children of projected growth at the West Side School,
1. current West Side attendance boundary residents who will have elementary school aged children in the future, and
1. families considering moving into existing West Side attendance boundary residences as well as the current inhabitants attempting to sell them those residences.

The following two components make up our proposal for resolving this issue :

1. All children receive, by default, the conventional instruction method at their attendance boundary school.
1. There can be as many full classes receiving an alternative instruction method at the West Side School as available resources allow, and community demand requires.

• This proposal is essentially a continuation of the existing operation where attendance boundary residents receive the conventional instruction method at their attendance boundary unless they choose to receive the alternative instruction method.
• This proposal does not conflict with the school board decision on establishing the new attendance boundaries or the decision to move the alternate method of instruction program to the West Side School.
• This is not a proposal for a "school within a school" or a "top down separation" of the children receiving the two different instruction methods. It is an extension to the existing variety of teaching styles already present in the schools providing the conventional method of instruction.
• Optionally, the East Side School could have this same operating environment in order to make the alternative instruction method more accessible to all residents.
• We have been told that this proposal will not work because the two programs cannot successfully operate together in one school. If it is true that the alternate teaching method program is so different that it is not capable of coexisting in the same building with the variety of styles existing in the conventional method of instruction, then this reason alone ought to be sufficient to not force West Side attendance boundary residents to receive the alternate method of instruction at their attendance boundary school.

We have already met individually with two board members, and would be happy to meet with each of you individually at any time in order to discuss proposed resolutions to our issue.

We are asking that the board provide information in a timely manner on how best to proceed in order to generate a resolution to our issue. We are also asking that the board establish a timetable for adopting a resolution that takes into account their knowledge of the activities involved in the opening of the West Side School that may be impacted by the components of the resolution.

In order to better understand our situation, the following hypothetical proposal is presented for illustrative purposes only.

In no way are we recommending that any proposal like this actually be enacted.

The hypothetical proposal would apply to the Batavia School District residents not living in the West Side School attendance boundary region that are allowed to have their children attend the West Side School in order to receive the alternate method of instruction. The proposal is to attach a school attendance restriction on these residents and their homes. The restriction would require that the children of these residents never be allowed to receive the conventional method of instruction from their attendance boundary school. In addition, this restriction would be associated with the home addresses of these residents and would carry over to the children of any future owner of these homes. This restriction would go into effect if any current or future resident of these homes ever wanted to choose to have their children receive the conventional method of instruction. In this case, these residents would attend a school designated by the school board who would "find a place for them" among the remaining four attendance boundary schools.

Would residents outside of the West Side attendance boundary choosing to attend the alternate method of instruction significantly object to this proposal ?

Of course they would.

Does this proposal sound unfair, unreasonable, outrageous, or discriminatory ?

We believe it does.

Would the school board ever seriously consider a proposal like this ?

We hope that they would not.

If the school board would not consider imposing these restrictions on residents choosing to receive the alternate method of instruction, then why has it executed actions that impose those exact restrictions on the West Side School attendance boundary residents that choose not to receive the alternate method of instruction.

Darryl and Donna Hymel - HYMEL1999@aol.com

630-879-8348

Terry and Donna Todd - tlt@tltodd.com

630-879-8077