Sunday, February 01, 2009

Local District Takes Advantage of a Bad Situation

It's both cynical and smart at the same time:

San Juan Unified School District is opening its doors to Loretto High students.

The Catholic all-girls school announced that it will close at the end of this school year because of declining enrollment.

Trent Allen, spokesman for the district, said interested families are encouraged to attend a special informational meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the district office, 3738 Walnut Ave.

Loretto families who live within district boundaries can send their children to a neighborhood high school, or apply to send their child to another through open enrollment. The district has nine comprehensive high schools.

The window for open enrollment applications, which closed Thursday, has been extended for Loretto High families, Allen said.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see compassion, hospitality, and flexibility. Please direct me to the cynicism, because I can't make it out.

Darren said...

Taking advantage of someone else's (the school's) misfortune is the cynicism. And don't for a minute think there aren't people glad this is happening. I'm not, however, discounting the compassion, hospitality, and flexibility.

Perhaps you missed my earlier post on this topic.

Anonymous said...

There is a school population whose school is scheduled to close. San Juan is extending its open enrollment deadline to accommodate those students.

Were you hoping that San Juan would raise funds to keep Loretto open? Had you been the San Juan Super, your response would have been what, exactly?

Darren said...

I'd do the same thing--for the same reasons.

Anonymous said...

> The window for open enrollment applications, which closed Thursday, has been extended for Loretto High families, Allen said.

That clears up any lingering doubts about the importance of education in the public education system. The district is displaying its magnanimity by extending a deadline that exists for bureaucratic purposes.

I'd say that's a case of getting the cart before the horse but I haven't yet had my request to engage in sarcasm approved by the Opinion Expression committee.

Anonymous said...

@Allen, you support no deadline for enrollment applications?

Sorry, but real school districts do have to engage in such "bureaucratic" nonsense as planning for enrollment, staffing schools to certain teacher/student ratios, working out bus schedules, etc.

I'm with you though: give schools unlimited budgets and unlimited staffing flexibility. Gonna need some significant revenue increases to fund this kind of thing.

But I'm a lefty: I wanna tax other people and spend their money as much as possible. I'm just glad to see we're on the same side.