The two proposals I have seen for the new assignment plan show each student assigned directly to their neighborhood school or given the choice of a couple schools if the students from that neighborhood choose not to attend. Exceptions are made for "Students with special needs that cannot be met in the neighborhood school, will be assigned to a school that meets those needs. These include, for example, bilingual
newcomers, certain special education programs, reentry/
retrieval programs."

 

It's not clear that the district regards Spectrum as a special need. In fact, the same slide says that "All schools will have bilingual, special education and advanced learning service/program models." This sounds like the "Spectrum in every school" that Dr. Rimmer used to promise/threaten.

 

It appears that elementary Spectrum programs will no longer recruit their students from across an entire cluster as they do now. It will be practically impossible for a school to form a self-contained Spectrum class with students living within the school's neighborhood reference area. This would be the end of the self-contained delivery model for Spectrum - the program's defining feature.

 

It is possible, of course, that the district regards Spectrum as a special need. In this case, the Spectrum programs could continue to recruit from broad areas and form self-contained classes.

 

If not, then Spectrum will end next year. The district should clarify this question before the end of the open enrollment period for 2005-2006. If there won't be any Spectrum in 2006-2007, there are some people who might want to choose APP instead for next year.