This email from Superintendent Rick Bagley and Director of Student Services, Teri Louer, was sent to all RVSD parents last week. In the few months they have been on the job, they have been working to investigate and ensure that all of our District programs are compliant with relevant laws. It is important to do so in order to have certainty that all RVSD students are receiving high quality education, and to reduce the District's exposure to possible litigation. Read the email below to find out what they discovered about the District's MAP Program:
"A Message from the Superintendent and Director of Student Services
March 18, 2015
Dear RVSD Community,
At last night's meeting of the Board of Trustees, staff shared important information we recently learned from the California Department of Education (CDE) regarding the status of our Multi-Age Program (MAP) at Manor Elementary School. We are sharing this information with the community and in particular, parents who are waiting to hear about the outcome of the MAP kindergarten lottery scheduled for April 2, 2015. We want to notify everyone that the lottery process may be delayed for the reasons explained below.
MAP was originally created as an "alternative program of choice," meaning one or more waivers of certain sections of the California Education Code had to be approved by the RVSD Board of Trustees and the CDE. Original waivers were approved and filed in 1996 for items such as the program's enrollment process (e.g. lottery), governance structure and certain aspects of the curriculum.
Since MAP's inception the CDE required annual renewal of these waivers as well as an annual report of the alternative program's progress. Both our records and those of the CDE indicate the required annual reports have not been filed since 1997.
As a result, the CDE indicates we must retroactively approve MAP as an alternative program of choice, if the District wishes it to continue in this status. Retroactive approval is a process we are exploring further, but appears similar in scope to the original approval process, including a number of steps such as public hearings, meetings with our bargaining units and ultimately Board approval.
It is our current understanding that one of the elements of MAP requiring a waiver is the ability to use a lottery to enroll students from outside the Manor attendance area. We'd planned to conduct the lottery on April 2, 2015, but are now considering postponing this event until MAP's current status has been determined and approved. Conducting a lottery without the authority or approval to do so, violates CDE’s requirements, our own District policies and potentially unfairly impacts our incoming students.
We realize a delay in the lottery may be unsettling to parents who are seeking admission to MAP for 2015-16, but we believe it is equally (if not more) unsettling to possibly be told a student has been selected for enrollment, only to learn later that he/she could not be admitted via a lottery process.
At this time we do not believe the District's lack of compliance (since 1997) with the State's required waiver and annual reporting requirements, compromises the 2014-15 instructional program for currently enrolled MAP students. Our greater concern is how to proceed prospectively with future enrollment, as the process used depends upon whether or not MAP is approved as an alternative program of choice.
We will keep everyone informed as this process unfolds and as always, please let us know if you have any questions."
Sincerely,
Rick Bagley, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Teri Louer, M.A.
Director of Student Services