Open Enrollment Fiasco

To Whom It May Concern:

Does common sense exist if sense is no longer common?

My dad wears a t-shirt, made by a friend, with that saying emblazoned on it. At the end of my family's seven month saga with the Wisconsin Open Enrollment program, the Hudson School Board and Superintendent, and the Department of Public Instruction, it is a saying with a whole new meaning to me.  The story of our saga is too bizarre not to share.

We live in the Somerset school district.  We knew that when we built our home four years ago, and we always knew that sending our kids to Hudson schools was not a guarantee.  We are aware of the overcrowding in the Hudson middle school and, since open enrollees have to reapply in Hudson for middle school, we have embraced the task of looking for a school for our children to attend for middle school--likely a private school.  But, with a strong belief in public education and the role of involved parents in public education, cousins in Hudson elementary schools, and a husband/father whose job in Minneapolis is twenty minutes closer to Hudson than Somerset, we applied for our oldest to open enroll into Hudson as a kindergartener for the 2011-2012 school year.  We were delighted when it was a small kindergarten class and Grace was welcomed into Houlton Elementary School.  We have been nothing but impressed with the teachers and staff at Houlton Elementary School.  They have embraced our family, welcomed me as a trusted volunteer, and, most importantly, shown thoughtfulness and initiative in assessing my child's strengths and have helped her settle happily into the Gifted and Talented program while also challenging and treasuring her in her classrooms.   

And still we knew, in February of this year, that there were no guarantees that our second child, Josie, would be accepted as an open enrolled kindergartener.  We talked about how exciting kindergarten would be in Houlton or in Somerset, and we applied for her to open enroll into Hudson expecting nothing.  We stayed loose.  We consider ourselves incredibly lucky that Somerset is an excellent elementary school.  If we didn’t have cousins in Hudson and a husband/father who commutes to Minneapolis for work, we would never have considered open enrolling out of Somerset.

In March, when kindergarten registration occurred, we heard rumors of a surprisingly small kindergarten class and we felt hopeful.  When those numbers were confirmed we were thrilled--Hudson had a registered class of 332 kindergarteners and space for 418.  Four hundred and eighteen.  What could possibly go wrong?

Ah, I am so naive.  We received our letter denying our application for open enrollment for Josie on May 29th and went looking for the reason.  We found it in the form of a relatively new statute http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/118/51/5.  This statute states that each Wisconsin school district must declare in January, BEFORE kindergarten registration, which grades will be available for open enrolled students in the upcoming school year.  In order to do this, the school districts project the number of students they will have in each grade.  For grades one and beyond, they use existing enrollment slightly adjusted for growth.  For kindergarten, they project based on what I imagine is an expensive report from a demographer--a projection that this year in Hudson was off by 95 students.  Hudson projected 427 kindergarteners.  Hudson registered 332 kindergarteners.  Ninety-five students. 

Again we celebrated.  Surely--SURELY--an appeal could right this situation.  We spoke with Houlton--not only was overall Hudson kindergarten registration low, Houlton's was PARTICULARLY low!  They expected 13 kindergarten students per class.  We learned that Diane Radle, Executive Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools, had emailed the state asking how to proceed with a grade that had unexpected space.  They MUST intend to rectify the situation.

We appealed the denial of our application for open enrollment not on the basis that anyone had done anything wrong up to that point.  We understood the statute, we had read it, we understood that Hudson had not projected available space in kindergarten and that the Hudson School Board had no choice but to deny our application based on the statute.  We knew that the school board's decision had not been "arbitrary or unreasonable" but the end result WAS unreasonable.  We appealed the denial based on common sense.  The projection had been wrong.  There was ample--AMPLE--space for our second child not just in Hudson but AT HOULTON!  We would not have appealed had there not been space.  We were optimistic.

In response to our appeal we received a letter from the Department of Public Instruction describing how the appeal process would proceed.  One sentence stuck out to us--"As permitted by Wis. Adm. Code PI 36.10 (3) (c), it is the state superintendent's intention to base the decision on the official record of the school board and on any briefs the parties may wish to submit in support of their respective positions unless, during the course of the review, informal resolution seems possible or an investigation is deemed necessary" (italics mine).  Yes!  We read that and again, we felt optimistic.  The Hudson School Board could choose informal resolution!  How could they not accept Josie given that option--ample space, sibling already attending, common sense--we awaited contact from the Hudson School Board to discuss informal resolution.

There is no end to my naivete.  Instead of informal resolution, the Hudson School District and Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten hired the Minneapolis law firm of Rupp, Anderson, Squires & Waldspurger, P.A. to fight our appeal.  Thank you Hudson taxpayers.  We received a brief--a long brief--prepared by Michael J. Waldspurger himself.  We disagreed with nothing in the brief.  We still understood that nobody had done anything wrong.  We still understood that the Hudson School Board had followed the new statute.  We still couldn't believe that common sense couldn't prevail.  After considering hiring a lawyer to help us with our response, we determined that two smart people should be able to do this without a lawyer and we wrote a letter reiterating our stance--no wrongdoing, laws and statutes were followed, but the end result was so offensive to common sense that we couldn't--COULDN'T--believe that there wasn't somebody at the Department of Public Instruction with the authority to change the outcome.

And then we settled in to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  School starts, in Hudson and Somerset, on September 3.  On August 28th we went to Houlton's back to school night.  Houlton teachers were perplexed by our continued uncertainty.  Even with additional kindergarten stragglers, they had 31 total kindergarten students for two sections.  I called Somerset, to let them know the situation, just in case.   

On August 29th, we received a letter from Jennifer Danfield, School Administration Consultant with the Department of Public Instruction.  The letter informed us in bold print that the department had overturned the school board's decision.  We told Josie.  We celebrated.  I called Houlton to ask how to proceed and I organized the kindergarten school supplies for the Houlton list.  Later that night, my husband Pete and I settled in to read the rest of the information enclosed in the letter from Jennifer Danfield.  It included the official Decision and Order No. 4128 which states on the final page "It is therefore ordered that in the above titled appeal, the school board's decision to deny the pupil's application under open enrollment is affirmed."  

Pete and I were very confused.  Jennifer Danfield's letter had been clear and had included a form to send to Hudson and Somerset informing each school district that Josie would be attending Hudson.  We couldn't reconcile the cover letter with the order, but we also had a hard time believing that such a blatant mistake could be made five days before school started.  The next morning we received a call that the wrong cover letter had been sent and that Jennifer Danfield would promptly replace it with the correct one.  A very qualified apology from Jennifer Danfield arrived in an email, stating that she was sorry BUT if we had read further we would have seen the correct Decision and Order enclosed with the incorrect cover letter.  

And so, on August 30th, we finally had our answer.  I was angry, I was frustrated, I was completely bewildered, but I had an eager five year old to think of and I whisked her off to Somerset Elementary to get her registered for kindergarten--finally.   

Josie is joining a Somerset kindergarten class of 25 students.  A mere 15 minutes away, in Houlton Elementary School where her sister already attends, there are two kindergarten classes of 15 and 16 students respectively.  Hudson won't see the tax dollars that would come with Josie as an open enrolled student.  Somerset doesn't really want us, they have too many already. How is it possible that in all the people involved in this saga, there was not a single one willing to make a stand for common sense?  For sanity.  Not the Hudson School Board, certainly not Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten.   Not the Department of Public Instruction.  Not the Deputy State Superintendent, Michael J. Thompson.  Not the State Superintendent Tony Evers.  If none of these people have the authority to do anything beyond ensuring that a flawed statute is followed, what hope is there for common sense?   

My daughter will be fine in a class of 25 students.  She is bright and audacious, with no small amount of spunk or personality.  I'm not worried about her.  And after dropping her off this morning, not only am I not worried, I am excited and thrilled.  Somerset Elementary School is a beautiful facility full of warm and engaged teachers and staff.  But I am worried about living in a world with so few people willing to take a stand when they see something ridiculous occurring.

I recognize and accept that this saga is officially over.  Josie is a Somerset student, at least for the year.  In January the Hudson School Board will meet and determine whether they will open next year's first grade to open enrollment.  My guess is they will.  Then we will decide whether we will transfer Josie, keep her in Somerset, or give up altogether on Wisconsin public schools and take our business elsewhere earlier than we originally thought.  But I wanted to tell my story because it begs many questions.  If the state of Wisconsin believes in open enrollment then why was this process so painful? If a school determines there is space after January, what reason exists to prevent them from admitting open enrollees at that point?  Why doesn’t the Hudson School District keep a waiting list?  Why are waiting lists not mandatory?  Do we all believe that we should be working together in the best interest of the children at stake? 

Sincerely,
Alice Jones