I overhear all these Buena Vista neighborhood parents to complain about the choice in students “screwing up their Title I funding.”   I happen to be the parent of one of those students.  Let me offer you some facts before you condemn us. 

From the Buena Vista website

Currently, Buena Vista Elementary School is again changing with the times.  As enrollment declined and fears of the communities treasured neighborhood school being closed were emerging, the Buena Vista parents, staff, and community have rallied to create a new tradition at Buena Vista Elementary School.  A five-year plan has been proposed and accepted by the Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education to make Buena Vista Elementary School Colorado Springs’ first public Montessori school.  This Westside neighborhood saw the need to embrace an academically proven curriculum that could attract parents outside of the neighborhood to the school in order to keep the neighborhood school open and it truly shows an overwhelming love for this school and its’ traditions. 

Here’s another article detailing information about the original grant for Title I.  Buena Vista was granted Title I status in 2005. 

According to figures previously supplied by the school, about 30 percent of Buena Vista’s Montessori students in 2004-05 were from the attendance area, while 70 percent came from other District 11 schools or other districts.

BV chose to implement a Montessori program with the purpose of attracting students from other neighborhoods in order to keep the school open.  When the program began, they were actually worried that not enough students would enroll in the Montessori program and did a district wide effort to bring in both neighborhood AND out of neighborhood students to bolster enrollment. 

It’s not just the out of neighborhood kids (like mine  ) who don’t qualify for the free/reduced lunch program.  Neighborhood kids who don’t qualify and may have choiced out of Buena Vista before the Montessori program are now enrolled as well.   

If you have three members in the household, for the 2006-2007 school year, you needed to make less than $21,580 last year to qualify for free lunches.  And less than $30,710 to qualify for reduced lunch. Add about $3400 for each addtional household member.  Those who already receive food stamps and/or TANF automatically qualify.  So do foster children.  See http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/FRP/frp.process.htm for detailed information about the program and eligibility guidelines.

Families that live in the neighborhood that don’t qualify for free/reduced lunches affect the Title I status of the school as much as those outside the neighborhood.  And housing costs are going up in the area.

We can all blame the government for not funding preschool for the masses.  They won’t even support full day kindergarten.   

Sorry for the rant.  I just get tired of being blamed.