Melissa Bailey File Photo
Hooker mom Anna Festa lobbied for sibling preference.
Brothers and sisters applying together to popular magnet schools may get an edge in the lottery next year — if the district responds to Mayor John DeStefano’s urging to act quickly.
Whether the schools will act quickly, or hold off another year, was the subject of discussion at Monday’s school board meeting. The discussion focused on the school district’s current policy on sibling admissions.
Currently, siblings applying to the magnet school lottery get an advantage only if they already have a sibling attending that school. The system does not help a brother-sister pair apply simultaneously to a school, unless they already have a sibling there. The district is considering allowing siblings to enter the lottery on a joint ticket; it’s also considering extending sibling preference to neighborhood schools, where siblings don’t get any advantage.
Over the past year, parents like Anna Festa (pictured above) have come forward calling on the school to start giving students admissions preference if they have a sibling at a given neighborhood school. Festa and a group of parents from East Rock’s Hooker School met with school officials in February and asked for sibling preference.
“There’s a very strong need and want for sibling preference across the board in New Haven for all schools,” said Festa this week.
She argued sibling preference would help the city’s school reform initiative by getting parents involved in one school instead of multiple schools. It would also help parents get a second child into their neighborhood school.
“It just makes more sense, plain and simple,” Festa said.
At Monday’s school board meeting, Assistant Superintendent Garth Harries announced the school district does not plan to change the policy before the admissions lotteries early next year.
Harries said changing how siblings are treated in the lottery could be easy, but he felt the issue had not been amply aired.
While many parents have spoken up in support of sibling preference, Harries said, “there are sets of parents disadvantaged by that move,” whose voices had not been heard. Those parents didn’t come forward because they’re not frustrated with the current status quo, he said. Harries recommended the school district get public input on the policy this year, then decide whether to change the policy in time for the fall of 2014.
Why wait a year and a half? asked board member Mike Nast.
Harries said the district is under a tight timetable: The proofs for the magnet school pamphlets go to the publisher in the next two to three weeks, he said.
Melissa Bailey File Photo
Mayor John DeStefano (pictured) agreed with Nast.
“I’m for sibling preference,” DeStefano said. He said letting parents keep their kids in the same school boosts parent engagement.
“Who would be against” the policy? he asked. Parents with only one kid?
Harries responded that at popular magnet schools, solo applicants might not get spots if students with siblings grab them first. Most parents lose out in the magnet lottery: Last year, 9,333 students competed for 2,677 spots in magnet and charter schools.
“Virtually all magnet schools have wait lists,” Harries said.
Superintendent Reginald Mayo said the district needs to hold a public hearing on the subject.
“We ought to get public input,” he said.
DeStefano urged the district not to delay.
“The point is, you do get more ownership in a school” if a parent has multiple kids there, instead of being stretched between several schools, DeStefano said.
DeStefano said he understands the time crunch, but the district could make it work with a simple blast to the Parent Link parent advisory system and a call for public input.
“To me this is a no-brainer,” DeStefano said. He urged the district to “find a way to do it this year.”
Mayo agreed to “push” the subject, but did not commit to changing the policy before next school year.
The topic popped up this year as a panel of teachers, parents and public officials reexamined the rules by which kids get admitted to city schools. The panel issued a final report earlier this month with 24 recommendations.
Sibling preference wasn’t in the purview of the panel, but it emerged as a top priority for parents attending the redistricting meetings. The panel made no recommendation about changing the city’s sibling admissions policy; instead it called for a task force to take up the issue.
Harries said because the topic was not under the redistricting committee’s charge, the district did not gather data on how many parents would be affected by a change in policy.
Mayo conceded the district has been inconsistent on the topic. “Before, it seemed like we had sibling preference at some schools and not others,” he said.
ALL schools in the city of New Haven need sibling preference. It is a vital key to parental involvement. The NHPS can't keep talking about parental involvement out of one side of it's mouth and then expect parents to be involved in more than one school. Its a no-brainer and were not really talking about losing that many open seats to siblings year-to-year.