Foster City Islander Article - 10-10-2007
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Charter Public |
Phyllis Moore, President, Foster City High School Foundation |
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Facts: Admission Criteria - Charter Public High School
At its September 17th meeting, the City Council challenged the admission criteria for the proposed charter public high school, and wrongly argued that Foster City students would not have a seat at this school. The facts about these criteria follow. Unless there are more applications than spaces(which will then go to a lottery) students will be admitted in the following order:
(1) Up to 35 percent of capacity at each grade level “first-to-college” students who reside within SMUHSD-students who come from families where they would be the first to graduate from college:
The Council wrongly judged that this criterion would exclude Foster City students, based on their erroneous belief that parents of nearly all Foster City students are college graduates.
FACT: In 2007, at Bowditch Middle School, 238 of the 951 students (25%) had parents without a college degree. Applying this percentage to the 313 eighth graders, about 78 have parents without college degrees (data available at http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2007. This is nearly twice the number of spaces reserved for first-to-college students!
The Council seemed unaware that we have residents in our community who are “only” high school graduates.
FACT: In Foster City, almost 33% of Foster City residents over the age of 25 years do NOT have a college degree. (http://www.fostercity.org - demographics)
(2) Children of Charter School staff and Envision Schools Board members who reside within SMUHSD;
The Council wrongly judged that the proposed school would be mostly for children of teachers, staff and board members.
FACT: This is a standard benefit that most schools districts offer to teachers with children. In practice, very few teachers have high-school-age students.
(3) All other students who reside within SMUHSD;
SMUHSD students have priority and most students would probably continue to attend their local schools.
(4) Children of staff and Envision Schools Board members who reside outside SMUHSD;
Again, this is a standard benefit. In practice, very few staff and board members have high-school-aged children.
(5) Students who reside outside SMUHSD.
This applies ONLY after all seats are filled by Foster City and other SMUHSD students.
Bottom Line: It is simply untrue that Foster City students would not be able to attend this high school.
FACT: The majority of students will most likely be Foster City residents.
Newsletter sign-up: www.fchighschool.org/getinvolved/support/
Contact me at phyllismoore1@comcast.net or 650-349-5676
