School System Declines By 500 Students

[our2cents]

and that they wouldn't send their kids to East High. (why?)

I think that has to do with the safety of their children's transportation.  And the district has proven they can't even do that...and they won't admit to it.  Listen to the PD Scanner link after school hours every day...and several times a week you'll hear calls of kids missing because they didn't get off the bus.  Just the other day a kid walked from another distant route when he realized it was the wrong bus and the driver put him off...and finally made it home while the officers were there.  It's happened a lot...they send pd cars to the school looking to see if the kid was there...etc.  It's safety fears for the parents.  If something happens fairly close to home, the kids can walk.  That's not the case with their kids being bussed across town...and that's always been the case.  But now they're busing the entire district even though a lot of parents made sure they lived close enough to the schools they wanted their children to attend.

[northside lurker]

I'll concede the point that parents should have been asked for their input.  But, not being that familiar with the nuts and bolts of the district, I don't see what's wrong with the changes that are being implemented.  The biggest complaints I've heard so far (from alumni, not parents) are that Chaney is losing its sports team, (I don't care) and that they wouldn't send their kids to East High. (why?)

[our2cents]

I agree the current form doesn't work, and neither did the old.     The district should have asked for input, not just said this is what were doing and we don't care.  Even if it meant combining buildings and grades in order to keep kids where parents generally wanted them.  Almost every single parent has told me that if their kids were in k-12 they would be happier then busing their children everywhere.  It's worked in other cities around the country, and private schools.  Most setup different floors or wings and it works just fine.  But now this is a dead story...they've made their decision and they're right and parents are wrong and well...the kids are leaving.  So, the district has lost at least 20 A/B students.  Wonder how that is affecting their state testing reporting going forward?  How many of those 500 were the A/B students?

[northside lurker]

It's unfortunate that some parents have this attitude.  The system obviously isn't working in its current form, and peole complain and/or leave.  But, when changes are made, people complain and/or leave.

[our2cents]

Yea, amazing how huge plans chase 500 more kids into other districts where the parents feel the kids will be welcome and safe.  I would love to see the map of where those students are from to get an idea of why the district lost them...bet most are from areas where the kids were going to be forced into a change.  I personally know 20 of them.  They all went Open Enrollment to neighboring districts or their parents moved to those same neighboring districts.

[jay]

There are about 500 fewer students in the Youngtown City School system this year.  If this rate of loss continues, the system will have no students in 12 years.