Stakeholders of Palisades Charter High School hoping for closure on a controversial calendar change or a nail-biting admissions policy probably left the school’s Tuesday board meeting disappointed. Although the board voted on the issue in November, parents still aren’t sure when school will begin next year’and even whether their children will be admitted. The most recent news on the school’s calendar change and admissions policy are detailed below: In Third Vote, Teachers Oppose Calendar Change In a third vote of faculty, the overwhelming majority of teachers at PaliHi voted to maintain the current academic calendar in place of a controversial and increasingly unpopular calendar that might take effect next year. According to the vote held by teacher’s union UTLA, 74 teachers voted to keep the current calendar and 45 voted to adopt the new calendar. One teacher chose not to vote. Speaking to the board, PaliHi teacher Pam Harbour said, ‘I urge the board to take a re-vote based on the stakeholders you represent, not your own personal interests.’ But the board has been unwilling to re-vote on the change, which is now part of negotiations between UTLA and school administrators. UTLA representative and PaliHi teacher Joi Tanita said that this most recent vote will shape the union’s position at the bargaining table. If the change is approved, classes in the 2007-2008 school year will begin on August 20 and end June 6, rather than beginning after Labor Day and ending in late June. Also, the first semester would end before winter break, rather than ending weeks after winter break. Last November, the school’s board voted against parent and student majorities and adopted the new calendar. At that time, teachers were narrowly supportive of the change. The board expects that an earlier first semester final and an extra three weeks of instruction time before Advanced Placement tests will benefit students academically. Majorities of students, parents, and now teachers oppose the change. They say that Pali’s proposed schedule will conflict with the calendar of all other local public schools, affecting some school sports teams and winter and summer vacation plans. They also say that the school’s administrators overestimated academic benefits and underestimated the calendar’s financial costs, when they were originally polled in September. The possible costs of the change, which could be as high as $80,000, were not included on the original ballot. ‘Families are rightfully upset that they have not been kept apprised of the status of this issue since a letter went out in November about the board vote,’ wrote Amy Held, executive director. ‘Notification of all school community members will go out as soon as negotiations on the matter are completed (projected to be by May 10).’ 95 Revere Students Remain Wait-Listed PaliHi seats remain elusive for 95 students from Paul Revere Charter Middle School. As reported in the Palisadian-Post (‘Sixty Win Pali Seats; Error Means Fewer Transfers, March 22), applications to the high-performing school have far exceeded the 700 available ninth-grade seats, jeopardizing enrollment for dozens of students who attend the longtime ‘feeder’ school but live outside the Palisades. Pali administrators required that all accepted students send the school a confirmation of their intent to attend next fall. Those letters had to be postmarked by April 10, but the school has not yet counted those confirmations. The school predicts that by next week it will be able to begin taking students off the waitlist. At Tuesday night’s board meeting, Assistant Principal Margaret Evans said that based on current projections not all wait-listed students will be accepted. According to PaliHi records, the school has accepted 589 students for ninth grade and expects that 115 students will enroll in the Magnet program. The school has reserved 20 seats for Palisades residents who might enroll. In order to comply with new federal education law No Child Left Behind, it has also been forced to reserve 76 seats for students from overcrowded, low-performing schools throughout Los Angeles. Not all those seats are expected to be filled. As previously reported, school clerical errors have reduced the amount of spots available for grades 10 and 11. Those errors have also confused and angered parents. Board member Eileen Savage assailed the administration’s admissions practices Tuesday night. She was also angered by the lack of more current enrollment data. ‘At this point we don’t have trust from the community,’ Savage said. ‘I just don’t think we’ve done a good job. Our communication has been as clear as mud. And now we have to rebuild that trust.’ ———– To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.
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