Last second problems with magnet school

[Lisa1970]

My high schoolers were supposed to go to a magnet school this fall for math and science. The enrollment was at 180. It was supposed to be a nice school with good education and nice kids.

Then, over the summer, in trying to make their school grow, they added 70 kids, mostly hockey players from some hockey team. These are kids who play Hockey most of the day instead of doing school or attending school. The magnet school plans to do all they can to "make things work." We used to take ice skating classes where the Hockey players go. They were horrible!!! They would race each other and ram in to the walls and sometimes ram small children who were holding on to the wall trying to learn how to skate. They would not even notice (supposedly, I think they just did not care) the crying child on the ground who just got hurt. We saw that happen enough that we gave up ice skating.

Now 1/3 of the school is going to be those Hockey players. Those "hockey parents" (as the school kept calling them) completely dominated the orientation meeting tonight. I am frustrated! My children are the academic type, not the brute bully types. I am afraid the school clearly went in a different direction. I am quite upset.

I can still unenroll the kids, but then it is homeschooling. Not that I have a problem with homeschooling, but I am frustrated! When I tried to speak to one of the staff about it (the head person) and tell her I was concerned about 1/3 of the school being a Hockey focus and that I am worried about discipline issues, she just said everyone would get along.

Please don't belittle my concerns. Please offer me helpful advice. Thank you.

I need to add that in front of all of us, the school said the Hockey kids would be exempt to many assignments that other kids are expected to make a big deal of. Like everyone has to make a big presentation every 6 weeks on a project (it is a project oriented school) and the hockeys are exempt from it. Plus, the hockeys are being given high school credit for their time in hockey, but the rest of the students do not get credit for their things. My daughter plays for the city orchestra and the other public schools give credit for that, and they said they would not allow it for music, only for the Hockey. I do not think this is a math/science magnet anymore. Plus, I do not like that my children's grades will be measured up against kids who were exempt from a lot of the school work based on their hockey schedules. Plus, some of the "Hockey parents" were obnoxious. We noticed right off some really obnoxious parents when we first got there. We just did not know for a bit in to the orientation who those people were.

[oceanbaby]

Well, what do your kids think about it? If it were elementary school, I'd probably be more inclined to say I would take them out. However, at a high school age, I'd let the kids decide (assuming hs'ing is feasible for you).

My kids are starting school for the first time this Fall, and my mantra has been "Wait until there is actually a problem." We didn't get the teacher we requested for ds2. My first inclination was to get really wound up about it, but then I reminded myself to wait until there is actually a problem.

It's still possible that it could work, and since the only other option is hs'ing, then it's worth at least giving it a try, and if it's bad you can pull them out. Maybe schedule a one on one meeting with the head administrator to air your concerns? Ask her to go over some specifics about academics and discipline with you.

[Lisa1970]

Originally Posted by oceanbaby

Well, what do your kids think about it? If it were elementary school, I'd probably be more inclined to say I would take them out. However, at a high school age, I'd let the kids decide (assuming hs'ing is feasible for you).

My kids are starting school for the first time this Fall, and my mantra has been "Wait until there is actually a problem." We didn't get the teacher we requested for ds2. My first inclination was to get really wound up about it, but then I reminded myself to wait until there is actually a problem.

It's still possible that it could work, and since the only other option is hs'ing, then it's worth at least giving it a try, and if it's bad you can pull them out. Maybe schedule a one on one meeting with the head administrator to air your concerns? Ask her to go over some specifics about academics and discipline with you.

The dean of students was fielding questions at the end of the presentations and I tried to talk to her about it and she blew me off.

[One_Girl]

Originally Posted by Lisa1970

The dean of students was fielding questions at the end of the presentations and I tried to talk to her about it and she blew me off.

You probably need to make an appointment to speak with her alone so she can focus just on your concern. Group meetings, open houses, and back to school nights are not nights were teachers and principals tend to allow one parent to monopolize their time with concerns. E-mail can also be useful if she is busy but you really want to get your concern across.

[34me]

Was the enrollment supposed to be so small? I know my ds#2's small school had to make a less than ideal "marriage" because fiscally a school with only 115 kids in it, in a building built over 100 years ago that needed 3 million in renovations needed to merge with another school or close. We chose to merge and I really hope it works. Right now I am working on blind faith, quite honestly. Will the players even be in the same classes or is this turning into a performing arts type of school for them? ........and I'm a hockey mom

[Lisa1970]

Originally Posted by 34me

Was the enrollment supposed to be so small? I know my ds#2's small school had to make a less than ideal "marriage" because fiscally a school with only 115 kids in it, in a building built over 100 years ago that needed 3 million in renovations needed to merge with another school or close. We chose to merge and I really hope it works. Right now I am working on blind faith, quite honestly. Will the players even be in the same classes or is this turning into a performing arts type of school for them? ........and I'm a hockey mom

They will be in the same class, but they only have to stay for 4 hrs, so they routinely will miss classes and were told, in front of us, that they would simply be exempt from school work for that time. The school is a small school. It is a charter/magnet school and this is only the 3rd year it is running. So, the hockey kids are bused there from the rink and then stay 4 hrs and then get to leave, even if they still have class. They have no homework. They are being given credits for hockey too, I think they said 2 credits. Plus, only the hockey players are given credit for things like drivers ed. Those were the only things addressed while the rest of us were still in the room. Then they pretty much took the hockey parents off by themselves. So I am unsure about what other benefits they are being given.

[Lisa1970]

Originally Posted by 34me

Was the enrollment supposed to be so small? I know my ds#2's small school had to make a less than ideal "marriage" because fiscally a school with only 115 kids in it, in a building built over 100 years ago that needed 3 million in renovations needed to merge with another school or close. We chose to merge and I really hope it works. Right now I am working on blind faith, quite honestly. Will the players even be in the same classes or is this turning into a performing arts type of school for them? ........and I'm a hockey mom

I thought I would add this from this website since you might be interested in reading more about it since you are a hockey mom.
http://www.icejets.com/page/show/106...e-jets-academy

[34me]

Thank you for the link. Even though I am not in TX, our old hockey director is, so I've heard all about them. Honestly I think they are using the school academics at the expense of the regular students test scores to woo the players to play for them. I would be pi$$ed. Since home schooling is an option I would give it a chance but I would definitely make an appointment with a high level administrator to sort out the needs of your kids. My kid plays at close to that level but frankly that "acadamy" probably costs upwards of $15,000 a year plus billet costs and that would be a really nice chunk of change to put in the college fund when only something like 1 in 20,000 Americans that play hockey at 13 or 14 get a college scholarship to play.

[Lisa1970]

Something else is, they are supposed to be residents here to attend the school. It is a public school, even though it was supposed to be a magnet charter school. It says on the hockey site that they are providing housing for a portion of the kids. This means the kids are not really residents of the area. They are legally residents of the place where the parents live. Legally, they are not supposed to be allowed to enroll in a public school in a place they do not have legal residence. We do not have open enrollment in Texas. It is a charter school so it does pull from a larger area than a regular school district, but it still is only supposed to enroll kids within the local district area.

[rabrog]

Honestly, I'd be going to the media with my concerns. You can't be the only person upset about this (honestly I'd be fit to be tied over this - we're in a hockey town and it pisses me off to no end when the hockey players are given passes for stuff by teachers). I'd be in the paper, on the news...this is ridiculous. Unfortunately, the magnet school will probably lose a lot of credibility before they figure out this was a bad idea.

Jenn

[Tigerchild]

I would take this first to the superintendent, then to the school board, then to the state department of education. Perhaps also to the media.

By doing so many things that flagrantly break the district/state rules for boundaries (residents vs. non-residents) the administrators likely are putting the entire program at risk. I also doubt that they are unaware that they are breaking rules, but right now with no publicity they perks of a nice sports team and more $$ are causing them to put their heads where the sun don't shine.

I have been through a "choice program" merger--it was very painful, caused a ton of chaos in the parent community (the kids were mostly fine, except for some sensitive kids reflecting their parents reactions to the merge), and made life hell for those of us in leadership for the year. And that was with two similar programs, with everyone expected to uphold the same standard for participation, ect.

The other thing you could do is to either individually (or collectively with other parents that feel the same way) ask for parity for non-athletic credits. They may have said no at the meeting, but I think it's worth asking again at a more focused meeting. But that still doesn't solve the problem of all those exemptions. Did they had out any kind of written info by any chance? That's something you'll want to copy to send out to others.

I feel for you. It's traumatic when you are forced to merge with another program, especially when you don't even really know those folks and you were expecting a smaller, more cohesive community. I will say, gently, though that it's probably good if you can set aside your feelings about "hockey parents" and "those hockey kids", and be willing to give them a chance. Or at least to get to know them. I have worked with (and grown to love and cherish) some difficult personalities, once I got to know them and realized they were just a loose cannon/open-mouth-insert-foot brash personality, but by the same token if you needed something they would ferociously have your back. I know I had to get over a great deal of my distaste for very structured, rules lawyer way of being, vs. my "old" communities more laid back and informal feel--and I'm glad I did because I adore the people in our "new community" and while it is hard to find the new equilibrium I believe we will be stronger in the long run for it.

I'm not sure this situation is totally analagous, I'm just trying to remind you that it's very likely that the "hockey contingent" are not all clones and hive mind. There are probably people and kids from that group that you will be happy to meet and get to know (eventually). So if you decide not to pull your child, and the media and district doesn't care, even if this is just going to be an evaluation year for you--if you *decide* to stick with it at this time, I strongly urge you to consciously choose to set aside old feelings and be open minded, even when people rub you the wrong way, in the interest of reserving judgement until you get to know them more, and to keep it an individual by individual thing.

[lach]

This seems very short-sighted on the charter school's side, if only because I'm thinking the hockey kids will bring the scores way down. And no, not because hockey kids are dumb... but as a math/science charter school I would expect them to have very high math/science scores. The hockey kids haven't been screened for math/science aptitude or interest, so it is unlikely that their math/science scores will be more impressive than the general private school population. Which, imo, isn't good enough for a specifically math/science school.

And I know that too much emphasis is placed on scores, but the truth is that scores do matter. For example: since it's a new school, they won't have any reputation among colleges, and when a college sees that the graduating class of this supposed math/science school only has an average math SAT score of 1200 (or whatever: I think they redid the scale since I took the SATs so I might be off as to what a decent-but-not-amazing score is!), they're not going to be impressed by the school.

[Lisa1970]

I asked the teens about it and they both had tears in their eyes. They do not want to go to the school under the new circumstances. Even my dh says he thinks that everything is revolving around the Hockey kids and there are lots of exceptions for the hockey players where the regular students still have to do everything.

So, the private school my children were supposed to attend before they got their places at the magnet school started this past Monday.My husband is calling today to see if it is too late for them to come there after all. In addition, we are looking in to a charter online program, but their enrollment might or might not have closed. It says closing today, but we do not know if that means today is the last day, or if it is all over by today.

If they are able to get back in to the private school, we will spend the day quickly running around purchasing school uniforms and such. It is so frustrating. Thanks for all your help.

[ollyoxenfree]

My dc have attended a couple of schools that house a special program alongside a regular program - dual tracks. it can be a huge problem for them to co-exist peacefully, nevermind happily.

It takes a lot of skill, diplomacy and good management. Without good strategies for integrating the programs, there are problems with social bullying, competitiveness, and jealous hoarding of school resources - and that's just with the parents. You can imagine what happens with the students.

I would start with the administration and ask about their vision for the school and the strategies for integrating these disparate groups of students. How are they going to promote school unity and avoid the kind of "us and them" attitudes that already seem prevalent? How will the school ensure equity between students and credit for outside activities? How will the school maintain academic standards?

Once you have a clear picture of the administration's response, then you can better decide next steps. Good luck.

ETA: Cross-posted and read that you've decided to go elsewhere for schooling. Best of luck.

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by Lisa1970

I need to add that in front of all of us, the school said the Hockey kids would be exempt to many assignments that other kids are expected to make a big deal of. Like everyone has to make a big presentation every 6 weeks on a project (it is a project oriented school) and the hockeys are exempt from it. Plus, the hockeys are being given high school credit for their time in hockey, but the rest of the students do not get credit for their things. My daughter plays for the city orchestra and the other public schools give credit for that, and they said they would not allow it for music, only for the Hockey.

This would be a deal breaker for me. I would be okay for giving credit for extracurriculars if they have a fair and equitable way for any reasonable extracurricular to be included. The music kids, the outside art classes, other sports, etc. should be included.

The behavioral issues would worry me, but I would be willing to wait and see. The different academic standards would really, really bug me. It would also bug me if these kids are not as academically prepared as most of the other kids. It means the classes in general will slow down and simplify. It would be different if the school was saying - Hey, we welcome all you hockey families but this is a rigorous academic school. We'll be offering tutoring for those who need it, but you either keep up (with assistance) or go elsewhere.

It sounds like they are willing to compromise their academic purpose for these people. I can't see that ending well for your goals.

[Lisa1970]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree

My dc have attended a couple of schools that house a special program alongside a regular program - dual tracks. it can be a huge problem for them to co-exist peacefully, nevermind happily.

It takes a lot of skill, diplomacy and good management. Without good strategies for integrating the programs, there are problems with social bullying, competitiveness, and jealous hoarding of school resources - and that's just with the parents. You can imagine what happens with the students.

I would start with the administration and ask about their vision for the school and the strategies for integrating these disparate groups of students. How are they going to promote school unity and avoid the kind of "us and them" attitudes that already seem prevalent? How will the school ensure equity between students and credit for outside activities? How will the school maintain academic standards?

Once you have a clear picture of the administration's response, then you can better decide next steps. Good luck.

ETA: Cross-posted and read that you've decided to go elsewhere for schooling. Best of luck.

Thank you. I also did speak to them on the phone and when I said I was worried about the academics, I was informed that there is nothing that says the Hockey Players will be less academic. Of course there is nothing that says that, except that they are on the ice or in "off ice" training 5-6 hrs a day. Our kids came there for a math and science magnet and those kids have parents who are paying thousands of dollars to have their kids spend most of the day on the ice. I also found out it is 80 Hockey kids and the total enrollment is 240. This means 1/3 of the school is Hockey. These kids show up between 10-11 every day, whenever it works for them (the staff just kept repeating to the hockey parents that they will work with whatever happens and that they know it won't always be the same time every day, just that it will be between 10-11. So you have a small school who will have 160 kids total in the building when 80 hockey players come in from off the ice and in to the small building, which even the administration admits was not made for that many kids, but they are working on accommodating them.

If we cannot get them back in to the private school, which is really iffy considering classes started this past week, then I am not positive what we will do.

Oh, and the magnet school is not even doing dual tracks. They are just sticking the hockey kids in with the rest and giving them credit for the classes.

[34me]

I am sorry to say that one of the goalies at the school is a former teammate of my son's. I just found out at tryouts today. I hate to say it but this kiddo really struggles in school and actually had a lot of tutoring/remedial assistance in Middle School last year. One of the reasons that parents sent their son there is because the emphasis is on hockey, not academics.

[mattemma04]

I would pull my kids and be very vocal about why I was pulling my kids.Perhaps the school can make it with mostly just hockey kids.That is their issue. If non-hockey parents just go along with this then they have no one but themselves to blame if things go sour.

Exempt from work that classmates are required to do? As if hockey players are *better*? A situation that will lead to resentment for many families.

Oh and I also had experience with hockey players skating while there was supposed to be a homeschool ice skating class.I think the facility just wanted to cash in on homeschoolers,but not provide a seperate/safe area for an actual class.It was held during open skate hours.We stopped after the first day.