Do our capacity/enrollment numbers for Armatage and Kenny match
the district's? What are they for 2009-10?
Yes. Armatage Community is staffed for 253 and there is
currently 251 enrolled; Armatage Montessori is staffed for 283
and 304 enrolled and Kenny is staffed for 277 and there is 278
enrolled.
What is the predicted enrollment at both schools given this move in
2010-11?
Based on the model we used to estimate individual school
enrollment for the 2010-11, we estimated Armatage Montessori
to be 414 not including special education and non Minneapolis
residents. This assumes all current Montessori students would
remain. We also assumed families that live closer to Armatage
than Kenny would likely choose to attend Armatage Montessori.
We thought roughly 80% percent of close-to-home families
would apply to Armatage Montessori and the remainder would
choose Kenny or other programs.
In regards to Kenny, we estimated 252 students would be the
enrollment for 2010/11 if the majority of current Armatage
Community families choose to remain at the Montessori
program. However, Kenny has the capacity to accommodate
about 450 students including special education. The bottom line
is we will be able to accommodate Armatage Community
families at either school.
(Is this predicted number of transferees and people moving out of
district taken from our Armatage surveys and/or affected by our
surveys?) We did not include results from any surveys in our
enrollment predictions. We will however, once decision is final,
conduct official enrollment requests and place students based
on placement criteria.
What are the academic and financial objectives of this move?
The Changing School Options plan is making a number of
changes that in aggregate will generate approximately $8.2
million in savings each year. In reducing "zone-only" magnets
to 3 per zone, we sought to provide large enough programs in
each zone (i.e., providing more Montessori seats for the SW/W
Zone 3, making Bancroft the K-5 IB magnet in Zone 2 rather than
the smaller Northrop site).
What is the current waiting list for Armatage Montessori? Is it a long
list?
There are currently 21 K-5 students on the waiting list for the
Montessori program.
If Armatage Community parents don't choose to switch
programs and stay in the building as predicted, OR if they don't
choose to move to Kenny as predicted, what is the plan B for
them and the district?
The plan is to allow the families that choose to either stay at
Montessori or if all families choose to attend Kenny, there is
enough capacity at both buildings to accommodate the demand.
There will continue to be other choices that families will make
outside of Kenny and/or Armatage Montessori ie, other magnets,
and out of attendance area choices.
Montessori/Magnet Questions:
What additional resources will come to us as a magnet—and do we
have discretion over how these resources are spent?
Currently, we do not plan to provide additional set allocations to
magnet schools. Instead, we have identified a portion of the
integration revenue to be used to strengthen magnet fidelity and
support increasing diversity of our magnet student population.
Schools will be able to apply for investments they seek to make.
The specific parameters and/or criteria and allowable expenses
for use of those funds has not yet been finalized.
Specifically: full day kindergarten is a need for fully implementing
Montessori, can we expect this for all kindergarten classrooms?
Currently all schools that have at least 50% of higher
free/reduced lunch will receive all full day kindergarten
sessions. However, as a magnet program, Armatage could apply
for the additional resources made available for magnets to
assist in funding full day allocation if that was the highest
priority.
In addition, Armatage Montessori could choose to offer a feebased extended day kindergarten plus option.
Teacher Montessori training paid for by the district—all teachers still
need to be trained if this facility is to retain its integrity. Will the District
pay for this? Will current Armatage Community teachers get the
option to expand their skills in this way in order to remain in their
school community?
As the school's enrollment grows, Armatage has several ways to
expand its trained teacher corps, including hiring trained
Montessori teachers from Park View Montessori, seeking
teachers in other schools with Montessori background and
training non-Montessori-trained teachers. As mentioned above,
the parameters for the special additional magnet funds have not
yet been defined, so we are unable to answer whether teacher
training is an eligible expense at this time.
Will the community school be transitioned out or removed completely
in 2010?
The Administration’s recommendation is to close Armatage
Community effective June 2010.
If you are expecting to remove it completely, how do we assure that
we do not operate in a ½ empty building? We do not want the
building half empty or to lose our specialists.
We will address the issue of specialists once we see what the
enrollment will be.
How fast do you anticipate the program growing?
It will depend upon what the Community families choose to do
and choices made by other SW/W zone families. The enrollment
in the SW/W quadrant of the city has been steadily increasing,
providing new students each year. We also have the
opportunity to introduce Armatage Montessori to students living
in the area between 94 north and 42nd street, Chicago and 35W,
who will now be a part of Zone 3.
Will we have a guaranteed walk-zone around the school (3-6
blocks)to assure that we do not run into a future problem with the
school being full and people who live close not being able to attend?
We do not currently have guaranteed attendance areas
immediately around magnet school buildings. Depending upon
the particular magnet school location and housing stock around
it, such an area could unfairly advantage the highest income
students living in the area.
What will happen to the CLASS program? How do we assure this
population can have their needs met in a magnet/ Montessori school?
All of the Special Education programming is in the redesign
phase just as the regular education programming. Decisions on
where special education programs will be placed will be
dependant upon demographic needs, program pathways,
transportation and space. Armatage is being considered to
house the Pre-school autism program currently located at
Longfellow, based on the concentration of special needs of the
students and where they live. No final decisions have yet been
made regarding where the special education sites will be for
2010-11 school year. We begin to formalize decisions once
recommendation has been approved by the Board of Education
on September 22.
Is the District considering a Montessori Middle School—they should
know this is not supported by Montessori families in the Armatage
building and these ‘plans’ should not be made without a planning
team of Montessori parents.
This is not currently under consideration.
Given that there will only be three separate middle schools in the
district, is the long term plan to make Armatage Montessori a K-8
program? If so, when and how?
At this point no decision has been made to grow Armatage
Montessori to a K-8 program. However, if the demand is there
among families and a strong K-5 program has matured and a
credible middle school Montessori model designed, it could be
considered in the future.
Also:
Would Kenny/Armatage community be considered a merger or a
closing/excised program? (Aren't those the terms that affect whether
Armatage teachers would get first priority at Kenny?) The
recommendation is to close Armatage Community. However, the
CSO Implementation Team will strongly encourage and craft
procedures that encourage principals to build upon current
student/teacher relationships from closing programs.
Explain to us why Kenny was chosen to be the community school,
Armatage the magnet, and not vice versa.
The primary reason is that the Armatage site is a bigger building
and therefore could accommodate the magnet program as
demand continues to grow while accommodating special
education programs. Kenny is more centrally located for
serving students who choose not to attend Armatage or
Windom.
Can Community school students be guaranteed access in the
Armatage building within a zone or by switching programs?
The current Montessori students can choose to remain in the
building and for this transition year, there is enough room to
accommodate all of the community students to also remain.
However moving forward, families that live near the Montessori
program would have to apply and participate in the lottery just
as all magnet school applicants do for district magnet programs
(if over-subscribed). Families that live in close proximity to
magnet schools do not receive preference to attend that magnet
school.
Will community program move as a school to Kenny and can they
retain their teachers? See previous answer above.
If they are phasing out the program at Armatage, how will that occur?
The program is not being "phased" out.
Can community teachers receive Montessori training and then stay
with the building? See previous answer above.