Cape council discusses ‘student preference’ policy for municipal charter school system
Superintendent asks to bump up admission priority for children of system employees, board members
How the preference list should be rolled out for those on the waiting list to attend one of the city’s municipal charter schools was discussed Wednesday.
A consensus of Cape Coral City Council members showed that five wanted children of a member of the Cape Coral Charter School Authority or of an employee of the Oasis Charter Schools to get second preference after enrolled students.
City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said the new language within Chapter 26 for the Cape Coral Charter School Authority is for the enrollment of students for accepting applications.
“The more material component pertains to the student community and the mechanism of the matriculation of priority given to those individuals,” he said of the process through which prioritization is given to those submitting the application and tie-breaking requirements.
The section states that “if the number of applications exceeds the capacity of a program, class, grade level or building, then all the applicants who submitted a timely, fully completed application, shall have an equal chance of being admitted through a random selection process.”
The new language presented gives preference in this order — students who matriculate through the elementary, middle and high schools, to siblings of a student already enrolled, to children of active military members, to children of a member of the board, or an employee of the authority, to students enrolled in the Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education Program and children of military veterans.
Superintendent Jacquelin Collins asked council to move children of a member of the board, or an employee of the authority to the second priority spot as it is a great recruiting tool for the system to attract teachers.
“It’s a perk of the trade,” she said. “It’s a great tool to get people to come and work with us.”
Many council members preferred having a sibling of an existing student come before an employee’s child.
“We are here to serve the residents and families of the community,” Mayor John Gunter said. “If you already have one child in there and trying to get other children into the Oasis Charter school System that is pretty important for most families.”
Collins said they have a long wait list.
“In order to fill gaps mid-year, I have to be able to hire teachers,” she said.
On any given year, Collins said they have two or three siblings a year that they get into their system, not, for example, 20.
“It doesn’t take up a lot of available seats. More than 50% of our staff have children in our system,” she said.
Collins said although she could not tell the council off the top of her head, she knows there are siblings waiting for seats at every grade level.
“We do the best we can when there is an opening to get those siblings in,” Collins said.
She said they have a lottery for kindergarten, sixth and ninth grade and siblings at the top of the list are automatically in.
“I strongly support what the superintendent has brought forth by practical experience,” Councilmember Dr. Derrick Donnell said.
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