‘Proximity’ plan set for vote
A vote on a long-in-the-works plan to assign elementary school children to schools closer to home is expected to come before the Lee County School Board on Feb. 7.
The new proximity plan would have an immediate impact on incoming kindergarten students, elementary students new to the district and rising elementary students living outside of the current school’s proximity attendance zone and needing transportation.
The district currently assigns students through a zoned, lottery-based School Choice program. Parents rank schools within their assigned zone with most students assigned to one of their top choices.
The long-standing program has become more and more challenging due to transportation staffing and cost issues.
“What it will do is provide us to get our school children to school on time. Every year a kindergarten class gets on board (it will) clear more past existing transportation routes. It is the right step and direction at this time I believe,” Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier told the board this week.
Superintendent’s Office Coordinator Dr. Adam Molloy said the proximity draft plan has new attendance zones that were developed by Davis Demographics. On average, there would be a reduction of choices from 12 to four schools. It also would provide a reduction of 100 square miles of the school district’s transportation.
“All rising elementary students are provided the option to continue to attend current schools. Transportation is provided if current schools are within new proximity boundaries. The grandfather enrollment window will run prior to the new proximity lottery,” Molloy said.
There was also an update related to self -contained ESE programs and students that they will maintain the current enrollment and district transportation.
The board also talked about K-8 academies, as it holds kindergarten through fifth grade students. The proximity plan would only impact those K-5 student levels.
“There are currently no admission programs at the K-5 level across the entire school district. Proximity will not impact those individual school programs,” Molloy said.
The elementary school enrollment residential, proximity plan zones that include Cape Coral and North Fort Myers are as follows:
Proximity Zone A:
• Hector A Cafferata Jr. Elementary School
• Patriot Elementary School
• Skyline Elementary School
• Trafalgar Elementary School
Proximity Zone B:
• Caloosa Elementary School
• Diplomat Elementary School
• Hancock Creek Elementary School
• Littleton Elementary School
• Tropic Isles Elementary School
Proximity Zone C:
• Bayshore Elementary School
• J. Colin Elementary School
• North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts (K-8)
Proximity Zone F:
• Cape Elementary School
• Gulf Elementary School
• Pelican Elementary School
School board member Debbie Jordan said even though they are helping all the schools with this process, when do they start letting parents know their child may not be at the same school any longer.
“I hear you, but without board approval to move forward to this, we have nothing to tell our community until the board approves,” Bernier said. “It’s a full-blown blitz to make sure our elementary schools and other people know how to access the data to make it work. We need a board decision before we start advertising what the changes are.”
Transportation changes
Student Enrollment Executive Director Soretta Ralph said they want to make sure parents know that students do have the opportunity to stay in their current school through the grandfathering process. She wants to make sure parents know they are waiving that transportation if they are outside of the proximity, or address zones, when they opt for the grandfathering option.
“Those participating families would be giving up that opportunity for transportation,” Ralph said.
According to the proposed Student Enrollment Plan 2023-2024, “school bus transportation will not be provided to those students unless the current school is within the new proximity boundary for the student’s residence.” In addition, it states that “students will only receive transportation for elementary schools within the residential choice proximity zone in which they reside. Families who require bus transportation will always be guaranteed an available seat at a school with capacity in their proximity zone.”
If a family does not make an enrollment decision before the end of the lottery period, the plan states that they will automatically be entered into the “new proximity lottery, so that school bus transportation will be available to them.”
Ralph said they will run a list that have not participated and a random application will be generated for them in FOCUS.
“If they want to be grandfathered, they have the opportunity to be considered if the space is available,” she said.
Ralph said if at any time a parent decides that they would like to change their child’s school during the school year it can be done if the seats are available at the school.
“Participating families that are new kindergarten enrollments, or new families to the district will rank their schools just like they do for open enrollment,” Ralph said. “The difference is they won’t have 17 schools to rank.”
The plan also includes sibling preference, which is similar to prior years. Ralph said pre-registration for kindergarten started in October and will close in late January. She said the parents are anxiously awaiting their school.
“We are still pre-registering kindergarteners. We will have to pause that for a short period of time. We will continue to take that information and allow it to be put it in FOCUS Parent Portal,” Ralph said, adding that they will not be able to process the registration for a period of time. “We know that parents are very excited to have the opportunity to submit through the Parent Portal.”
She said they really want parents to use that Parent Portal because that is where they will get their information. It is also a great way to keep connections going once school starts, Ralph said.
“After the lottery runs this year, we hope to open a Parent Portal to all families, all grade levels,” Ralph said.
With the new proximity plan, the board asked how classrooms, which are not being utilized to its capacity now, would be used.
“Proximity will fill the school based on the number of students they can hold,” Molloy said. “Proximity is built into capacity. The buildings do have a space and the kids are there and we can properly program and staff those schools. We are set to handle the growth. What we don’t know is the grandfathering number.”
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com