Handful turns out for Cape school transfer meeting

~ Parents of Blanchard and Jefferson students can request their children be moved.

Only four parents of Jefferson Elementary School students showed up Thursday evening for a meeting with principal Mark Cook to discuss the "school choice" option for some students to transfer to other elementary schools in Cape Girardeau that are performing better academically.

One parent, Sharon Crawford, said she won't move her adopted son, a first-grader, out of the southside school. "My son is doing great," she said after the meeting.

But one couple said they are considering asking the school district to transfer their son, a second-grader, to another elementary school.

The mother and father, who declined to give their names, said their son was struggling to read and that a transfer might provide him with a better opportunity to improve his reading skills. Still, they worry about transferring him to a new school in the middle of a school year.

Cook told parents that Jefferson Elementary has programs in place to help improve academic achievement, including an after-school tutoring program that currently serves about 80 students.

The Cape Area Family Resource Center at 1202 S. Sprigg St. hosted the meeting. The center operates an after-school program that serves some 40 children, primarily students from Jefferson.

Denise Lincoln, resource center director, said in advance of the meeting that some parents don't understand the "school choice" provision even though superintendent Dr. David Scala sent a letter to parents explaining the situation.

Scala, assistant superintendent Pat Fanger and a handful of Jefferson teachers showed up for the meeting.

For the second consecutive year, Jefferson and Blanchard elementary schools didn't make adequate yearly progress in state test scores. Jefferson failed to meet this year's goals in both communication arts and math. Blanchard's black students failed to meet the goal in communication arts.

Under federal law, parents of students in those two schools can request their children be transferred to other elementary schools in the district.

Jefferson and Blanchard combined have more than 600 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. But the district only has space in classrooms in Clippard, Franklin and Alma Schrader schools to handle 63 transfers.

School officials have said they expect few students to transfer. As of Thursday afternoon, the district had received three transfer requests from Blanchard parents and nine from Jefferson parents.

Fanger said some of those parents may withdraw their requests before the deadline a week from today.

Transfers won't take effect until January, Cook said. Students who transfer will be able to ride school buses to their new schools, he said.

However, federal law prevents any transfer students from returning to Jefferson or Blanchard schools for at least the next school year, Cook told parents.

"If you do go, you can't turn around and come back," he said.

Patricia King, who helps out with the after-school program at the family center, said she sees a number of Jefferson students who are struggling.

The speech of some fourth-graders isn't even up to second-grade level, King said.

"Something is not quite right," she said. "Our kids are in deep, deep trouble."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123