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Jennifer Hoff, a Lansdowne businesswoman and parent of two students at Ardmore Avenue Elementary School in Lansdowne, passed out copies of a policy she proposes the board adopt to ensure consistency in assigning pupils to schools within the district.
All agreed reopening of Colwyn School slated for September 2003 creates an opportunity to make changes at the elementary level. However, little else could be agreed upon.
School Director Barbara Rohrbach of Aldan trotted out an idea that's been in the hopper 10 years. Make Aldan a basic school with Aldan children having first priority at attending the school and fill the remaining spaces via lottery of interested applicants.
The idea "makes sense" at Aldan because the majority of the children already attending are bussed to the school, Rohrbach said. The facilities in every other town match the number of children living in the town, she contends. Those schools could become neighborhood schools.
Lansdowne Mayor Jayne Young (D) expressed concern for the impact on other elementary schools if Aldan becomes a basic school. "A magnet school has the right to expel children from that school if they do not buy into the program or their parents do not participate wholly in the program. They get sent to the other schools and it creates a disproportionate number of special needs children in the other schools," Young said.
Hummel expressed concern about the impact on class size. Class sizes would be capped in a basic school resulting in more children being sent to the remaining schools, she said.
School Director Francis Hogan Jr. of East Lansdowne tried to create a consensus. "This is where the leadership of the board comes in. We have to say we want another basic school. We have four votes here," Hogan said.
The school board has nine members. Two each from Darby and Yeadon and one each from Aldan, Colwyn and East Lansdowne. No school directors from Yeadon or Darby attended.
Colwyn Council President Steve McGonigle (R) told about a registration problem he encounters. "I hear from people in Darby all the time. They live across the street from Park Lane School and they wait until two days before school opens to register their kids," McGonigle said. The parents complain when the kids don't get assigned to the local school.
"Screw them. You're not going to throw two more kids in my child's class because you didn't get off your duff to register your child," Hoff said.
At one point the meeting turned into a slam fest with complaints about School Superintendent James O'Toole flying from all sides. Yeadon Mayor Jacqueline Mosley (D) wanted to know why O'Toole is still in office when the majority of teachers had a "no confidence vote" about him.
"I'm not going to start a coup to oust the superintendent in the middle of everything else we have to do," Hummel said.
East Lansdowne Councilman Robert Kleinberg (D), who called the meeting specifically to garner complaints about enrollment practices, brought the discussion back to the topic. "I don't think the message got out that this meeting was to discuss enrollment," Kleinberg said. He has long been a proponent of neighborhood schools.
