Diversity plan could close doors

Parents could find their children shut out of certain schools within their suburban districts in order to give first dibs to low-income children from outside the district.

Such transfers will start next year to help reach the new metrowide learning community's goal of improving the education of the area's poorest students.

Millard and Papillion-La Vista school officials have begun voicing objections at the prospect that their residents could get crowded out of a building or high-demand special program, such as Millard's International Baccalaureate program.

Omaha Public Schools attorney Elizabeth Eynon-Kokrda said the 11 member districts have to get away from thinking in terms of “our kid versus your kid.”

“This should be about making room for children and accommodating a child, and finding ways to serve the children in their choice of schools rather than finding ways to shut children out,” she said.

The dispute centers on a diversity plan that the learning community council is drawing up.

The open-enrollment plan, in general, would let children in Douglas and Sarpy Counties enroll in any public school outside their home district if there's room.

There are limits. State law says siblings of students at those schools will have first dibs, followed by kids who help achieve the state's target balance of students from backgrounds of poverty and plenty, and then, if there's room, other kids decided by lottery.

The law, however, is unclear on whether students transferring into a district should get priority over those who want to move to another school within their district for convenience or to enroll in a special program or magnet school.

If the council decides that nonresident students get first preference, and a school fills up, a child could be shut out even though his parents live in the district and pay property taxes to support it.

“If students from outside of our Millard school district boundaries get preference over our own Millard students, I will have very, very deep concerns over that,” said Mike Pate, Millard school board president.

The 22,000-student Millard district receives more than 1,200 requests a year from resident parents wanting to move their children within the district. It has waiting lists for its Montessori and Core Academy programs at the elementary level. Millard West High is at capacity and closed to transfers from within the district.

Rick Kolowski, chairman of the learning community council, said he hopes the concerns can be resolved “instead of everyone running to their lawyers.” Kolowski is the former principal of Millard West.

A legal opinion the council discussed in a closed session last week addressed the matter. Several people with access to the opinion, written by the council's attorney, Brashear Law, said it supports the learning community's authority to dictate how transfers will be prioritized.

The World-Herald requested a copy, but the learning community's chief operating officer, Julie Brewer, declined to make it public.

Ann Long, a learning community member who is co-chairman of the council's diversity plan task force, said the opinion is “a private matter between our attorney, until we take a position.”

Long said the task force members will recommend to the whole council on whether to accept the opinion.

“It's up to us, now that we've digested it, to get together and take a position,” she said. “It won't be popular. No matter what position you take, probably someone won't like it.”

Part of the problem is that the council has no firm projection for how many students may transfer.

The learning community council is considering requiring every district to use a common capacity calculation method devised by a consultant.

Learning community member Lorraine Chang said she doesn't envision the council dictating class sizes, but she wants a “legitimate and fair computation.”

The goal, she said, is to create a situation “where people won't game the system, we won't end up with empty classrooms — those are the kinds of scenarios that people are starting to say could happen.”

If transfers come in a torrent, capacity problems are likely to be compounded. If they come in a trickle, districts won't achieve the goal of socioeconomic balance.

Bellevue school board member John Hansen, who serves on the learning community council, said he doesn't expect a large number of transfers. But he understands why parents might be upset if open-enrollment kids are given priority.

Papillion-La Vista, for example, doesn't allow its students to transfer between its two high schools. He posed the scenario of a low-income student from Bellevue transferring to a Papillion La Vista high school to help with the socioeconomic mix.

“And yet,” Hansen said, “I'm living in (Papillion-La Vista) and I can't get my kid to go to Papillion South because I live on the other side of the creek.”

Papillion-La Vista Superintendent Rick Black said that if classroom capacity is eaten up by nonresident transfers, taxpayers could balk at approving bond issues to build new schools.

Eynon-Kokrda of OPS said districts can seek relief from the learning community, which has authority to pay up to half the cost of construction of classrooms to accommodate children transferring into the district.

Districts also get compensated for transfer students, including extra money for poor students and those learning English as well as transportation costs.

District officials, however, say the compensation does not cover the full cost of educating those students.

OPS, the state's largest district, already has a complex assignment plan, including a system of magnet schools and zones that aim to mix kids by socioeconomic backgrounds. Some students are restricted from transferring to particular schools.

Next year, OPS would probably continue to operate its own plan “complementary” to open enrollment, said Eynon-Kokrda.

It is unclear how the learning community's plan would affect students from outside the two counties who transfer in under the statewide option enrollment law. Administrators from District 66 and Papillion-La Vista said they believe students who currently transfer under option enrollment would be allowed to continue doing so.

Contact the writer:

444-1077, joe.dejka@owh.com

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