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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Our View: One man's beacon ... Guest Opinion: Lies about marijuana are finally being debunked ... Mochas, midrash and mysteries: Choosing light to banish the darkness ... Our View: One man's beacon ... Guest Opinion: Lies about marijuana are finally being debunked ... Mochas, midrash and mysteries: Choosing light to banish the darkness ... ASHLAND SCHOOL BOARD Crunching the numbers Ashland's principals compiling data as district considers class sizes, school zones Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Jan. 22, 2015 at 7:37 PM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Jan. 22, 2015 at 7:37 PM What do you think? --> Have an opinion on this story? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter » Read more X What do you think? Have an opinion on this story? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter » Social News A parent of two Helman Elementary students had a message for the Ashland School Board during its Nov. 10 meeting. “We are robbing our own child’s Peter to pay our own child’s Paul,” said David Brabec, reading a prepared speech. “Now I ask for three words from you to avoid events that will soon be out of or control: Smaller classes please.” Whether or not the district will be able to satisfy’s Brabec’s request may be at least partially determined by a study currently in the works, the details of which were laid out by Walker Elementary principal Patty Michiels during last week’s school board meeting. The principals from the five elementary schools in the Ashland School District are gathering data from each of their student bodies and will present that data to parents and faculty members in the coming weeks. The results and possibly a recommendation will then be presented to the district in order to help the school board and superintendent Jay Hummel tackle the lingering and controversial issues of school zone boundaries and how many open enrollment students should be allowed into the district for the 2015-16 school year. Michiels said she and the other principals aim to have the data ready to present during a Jan. 29 parents’ meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. at Ashland Middle School, and a staff meeting held shortly thereafter. The goal of the meetings is twofold: to inform and to listen. “That would really provide parents with an opportunity for some feedback and input prior to our recommendations,” Michiels said during the Jan. 15 school board meeting. “We’d orient them to these tables, we would illustrate the issue across the district and the need to fund many things as well as class size. And then we would try to get some feedback from them on priorities on placement of students and ways to balance out across the district.” Michiels said the data-collecting will allow the district to get a detailed snapshot at each school’s student population. “I went through every class and every student and just confirmed who they are, where they live, how they came to us, so we can really start to show you those numbers on tables in different ways,” she said. “And we’re really suspending judgment about any sort of priorities. We’re just wanting to publish those tables so people can look at them and use that data for some decision making. “And the process is really toward balancing enrollment across the district, looking at it in a district lens, not just an individual school lens …really being intentional with our practice for the future. So what I mean is as we grow, we’re trying to start from a spot this spring that we know where we’re going to grow. Not just reacting as it happens to us. We know, this is the building we’re going to grow in, this is where we want to place new students.” When Michiels was asked about the possibility of altering the current elementary school borders she said it’s too early to say. But, she added, based on the numbers she’s seen so far some tweaking may be worth looking into. “We have not come to any recommendations at this time, but when I reference those tables they do highlight some, I’ll use the word ‘interesting,’ data when you start to look at it in different ways,” she said. “So when you start to say, 'OK, let’s just look at all the children that live within the border of a school, and just say of all the children in our whole district who live within the border, is there enough room? Is there enough room for that?' You’ll see that we are stretching the borders of some schools. And that is something you would want to take action for. …Whether you want to do it this year or not I don’t know, but it would definitely allow you some information to decide how soon you want to do that.” School board chairman Jim Westrick asked Michiels if she had any target in mind, even in vague terms, for average class sizes, either district-wide or broken down by grade. Michiels said that’s been part of the discussion all along, and stressed the difference between “ideal” class sizes and “reasonable” class sizes. “I think the whole idea of a hard and fast border for a school zone is kind of a throwback to an earlier age when there wasn’t nearly as much student mobility and more permanent housing, things like that,” Westrick said. Michiels agreed, and talked about the possibility of flexible, “accordion” borders that could allow for some give depending on class sizes and other variables. “But again,” she said, “we haven’t come to any consensus on any of that yet because we’re really just trying to suspend any sort of judgment until we really look at the numbers and understand it well.” Michiels added that the district’s new policy could represent a paradigm shift, one that places the emphasis on district-wide balance rather than each individual school’s class-size targets. “(Before) we would be thinking, ‘OK, can we allow for this transfer, do we have some space here.’” She said. “But we weren’t keeping a lens on balance. “So I often think of picture frames. If you’re only looking at a three-by-five versus a four-by-eight. So, we want to make sure that lens is wide.”  Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-776-4469 or [email protected]. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Jan. 22, 2015 at 7:37 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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