Will Santa bring CMS demographic data?

About once a week someone asks if they've missed the story on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools demographics,  poverty levels and school-by-school enrollment.

Nope.  I haven't written that story because CMS hasn't produced those numbers, even though the school year is more than one-quarter over.

As they've explained and I've reported,  the delay is tied to the ongoing problems with PowerSchool, a new data system the state rolled out this school year.  But really  --  we still can't get enrollment and demographic numbers that were tallied in September and poverty numbers from October?

McCully

Just before the Thanksgiving break I badgered Scott McCully,  the CMS administrator in charge of that data:  Are you saying CMS doesn't yet know how many students are in each school?

McCully said that CMS does indeed track enrollment on a daily basis.  Those numbers are used for teacher allotments and other decisions.

What CMS doesn't have is the ability to generate the Principals Monthly Report,  at least not at all schools.  Despite weekly requests and multiple  "patches,"  some schools still can't make that system work,  McCully said.  And until they can all generate those reports,  CMS can't produce a districtwide report on the enrollment and racial composition at each school.  The poverty report,  which is based on eligibility for federal lunch subsidies, uses enrollment numbers from the Principals Monthly Report to do the calculations,  he said.

"We're all a little frustrated,"  added Tahira Stalberte from the public information staff.

It's not the most burning issue in public education,  but the delayed details do compound a serious challenge:  At a time when families are facing more choices than ever,  it's unusually difficult to get good data about schools.  Test scores that normally come out during the summer were deferred to November,  and changes in the testing system pose new questions about what the numbers mean.  School-by-school data reports from CMS and the state may not be out by the time the 2014-15 application season starts in January.

Meanwhile,  the PowerSchool problems are starting to seem like more than start-up glitches.  I checked the ongoing list of  "known issues"  the day before Thanksgiving,  and while I don't understand most of the techspeak,  it looks daunting.  I put in a request for an update from the Department of Public Instruction on Nov. 19 and haven't yet gotten a response from Chief Financial Officer Philip Price.

Here's hoping a new month brings some new answers.  McCully wasn't willing to make any predictions, though. "I think I've said  'next week'  for the last two months," he said.

Rezone your neighborhood? CMS now has a process

Some of the bitterest battles in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools involve residents who believe that their neighborhood ought to be zoned for a different school.

They bring personal stories and reams of data,  hoping to make their case.  They talk about having to drive past the closest school to get to the one their kids are assigned to,  or about being split from the rest of their neighborhood by a seemingly arbitrary boundary.  Often they're sent away,  and when a neighborhood request does get school board approval it raises questions about why one got through and not the others. Generally,  it has been confusing and frustrating for all concerned.

McCully

On Tuesday,  Superintendent Heath Morrison and Student Placement Director Scott McCully told the school board about a new process for handling such requests  (it starts on page 21 of this report).

There's a ranking process to size up the merits of each request,  with travel distance and effective use of resources as top-priority concerns.  Keeping neighborhoods together and protecting economic diversity at schools are a bit lower on the list,  and stability,  predictability and keeping elementary zones intact also factor in.

Jeremy Stephenson of southeast Charlotte's Crown Colony neighborhood described himself as ecstatic to get this far.  That neighborhood has long struggled to get rezoned from East Meck to Providence.

"Dr. Morrison last October met our request, and all others, with the call for such a process map, and now one is in place,"  Stephenson said in an email.  "We view this as a further boost of Dr. Morrison’s credibility with the community writ large."

McCully listed 13 neighborhoods that have made requests for boundary changes.  Four,  including Crown Colony,  have submitted the formal request to start the new review process,  he said.  Morrison said he'll bring any staff recommendations to the board in November.  Even if the staff decides against a  request, Morrison said the board will get the information so members can come to their own conclusion.