by Stephanie Faraci
I wrote a piece (“Champaign School of Choice: A Mom’s Eye View”) for chambanamoms in January and described myself as “terrified” to go through the Controlled Choice program.
I felt overdramatic as I wrote it, but it was how I felt. Well, now I know why. After waiting three excruciatingly long weeks (which, I know, isn’t that long; it just felt like it) to get our Unit 4 Kindergarten assignments, we were one of the 32 families that were “unassigned.”
I stared at my letter like I was in shock. But I wasn’t. I knew the odds were against me and this was exactly what was going to happen all along. We don’t have a Proximity A school and we didn’t put our Proximity B school in our list of five choices.
I wanted to simultaneously pretend this letter was a prank, cry, yell and drink heavily even though it was in the middle of a work day. For the record, I didn’t do any of those things. Instead, I spent the weekend and poring over information available on the remaining schools to see which would be best for my kid. When you’re looking at choices Nos. 6-11, it is hard to see them as “choices” anymore.
How do you regain composure when you have no control in the situation?
I’ve been an advocate for public education (as young as age 16 for the Illinois State Board of Education’s Student Advisory Committee to the Illinois Legislature) but this letter made me question everything. How do I place my child in a school that I didn’t like enough to choose in the first place?
The Controlled Choice process is so nerve-wracking; families with financial means are moving away or placing their kids in private schools. Having a system of kids whose parents can’t afford to move away is not good. Between personal conversations and chambanamoms.com blog posts, I have heard over dozens of parents exclaim their disgust with the assignment mechanism. They say things like “That is why we go to [insert name of favorite private school here].” Or, “That is why we live [insert name of town other than Champaign].”
Fixing this system should be a top priority for our community. It is working for some, but we know that the criticisms are freaking people out. That is why I want to pose questions that provoke ideas to make improvement. I make many inquiries in this post because I don’t have the answers and I am hoping that those in Champaign will pose constructive ideas to move us forward.
We need help navigating the lottery process.
During our initial session to fill out the Controlled Choice paperwork, we were told to fill in our choices however we wanted. Wherever you end up will be great. By going to a five-choice system, it is highly likely you’ll end up at one of your five choices. They were right; over 96 percent of applicants got one of their five choices.
That doesn’t help console the parents in the 4 percent who didn’t.
What especially frustrated me was learning that it wasn’t just about “making choices”—it was the order of your choices that mattered most. Why didn’t someone tell me that?! Had we chosen our No. 3 choice first, my husband Paul and I were told today, we would have gotten it. Now we are No. 14 on the waiting list at that school.
We need better, more specific instruction on how to work the lottery system—especially those families with no Proximity A school.
Parents: don’t just make a choice, ask questions and find out what choices have the best odds. How many spots does that school’s Kindergarten program have? How many people chose that school last year? How long is their waiting list? Does it stink that your kids’ education is reduced to what seems like gambling? Yes. But in the short term, it is the only option to get the system to work best for you.
What are we doing to fix the under-chosen schools?
Is it perception or reality that some schools are under chosen for a reason? I ask honestly, because I don’t know the answer. Dr. Howard, Kenwood, Stratton and Washington are the four public elementary schools that still have open spots. As of last Monday morning, there were 26 spots still available at Kenwood.
I’m sure it is a perfectly fine school, but there is something—call it mother’s instinct—that makes me feel it must be under-chosen for a reason. (I emphasize feel because I don’t know anything about Kenwood and it’s the unknown that makes me anxious. In the end, it is where we have decided to enroll our daughter and I am sure it will be great.)
From January through March, each conversation I had with teachers, administrators and district staff involved some version of the phrase, “Whichever school your daughter ends up in will be great.” What is being done to give parents the sense that is true? Seeing some schools with waiting lists with more than 50 people and others with more than 20 spots still available is proof positive not all schools are great. I know there have to be projects and/or initiatives going on. Is it just a matter of each school having the ability to tout its own success stories?
What is the alternative? Not having a lottery system? Bottenfield and Barkstall would still have problems enrolling all of the children that live within 1.5 miles just because there are so many kids that live near those schools.
The lottery is working for some.
The lottery was started as a way to bring racial and socio-economic equality to each of our schools. I by no means disagree with that and fully support a balanced group of students attending each school. Unit 4’s Controlled Choice system is mechanism for that to happen.
Is that really working?
Since the inception of this system, has the District met its goals on diversity? How do we make this better? Can we?
Stephanie Faraci has lived in Champaign with her husband Paul since 2004 and has contemplated the public school system since giving birth to her daughter Ellie over four years ago. She is currently the Provena Health System Manager of Advocacy, coordinating government relations issues for the six-hospital system. This weekend she completed her first half marathon.