Wednesday, January 23, 2013

AF: You Can't Challenge Our Lottery Procedures Because We Don't Have Any Yet

Ben Smith (via email):

To your question about lottery process – we continue to work with RIDE to ensure that our lottery is consistent with both our approved charter application and state charter law.

Of course, the time to sort this out with RIDE would have been between the initial submission of the application and RIDE's initial review, prior to the application even getting to the Board of Regents.

It seems pretty clear that as the parent of a child eligible for enrollment in the lottery, I can initiate a formal appeal to the Commissioner on this matter, without having to hire a lawyer, based on the possibility that my child would be denied the proper chance in the lottery due to non-compliance with the legal requirement to offer an equal number of enrollments to each sending district. That is, if that's what the policy ends up being.

So... quoting RIDE's FAQ, "The next step is to be heard at the next meeting of your local school committee." The AF board's next meeting is next Thursday, so I'll see if I can get in on that.

While we're on the subject, as of last week, the still incomplete board was made up of:

  • Mayor Angel Taveras
  • Reverend Jeffrey Williams
  • Macky McCleary

Also, the first of three currently scheduled informational meetings is tonight:

  • 1/23 (6:00 p.m.) – Boys & Girls Club (50 Laurel Avenue, Providence)
  • 2/2 (11:00 a.m.) – Blackstone Valley Prep (291 Broad Street, Cumberland)
  • 2/13 (6:00 p.m.) – South Providence Library (441 Prarie Avenue, Providence)

Of course, it is hilarious that they're holding an information session in the middle of the day at BVP in Cumberland, a town that doesn't even border on any of the communities served by AFPMA, and is literally half way across the state from Warwick.

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