Hillsboro's lone charter school is by far the least affected by poverty
City View Charter School, shown above, is the least-affected school in Hillsboro by poverty, by a margin of 10 percentage points. (Ross William Hamilton / The Oregonian (file photo))
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on November 15, 2013 at 9:00 AM, updated November 15, 2013 at 9:15 AM
Once again White Legal Americans Have to apologize for not having enough illegal aliens from Mexico in their school.
Poverty and Disavantaged mean Mexicans, Mexicans belong in Mexico not in our public schools and I am glad Americans are leaving the public schools behind to home school
Under “Frequently Asked Questions,” the website for Hillsboro’s City View Charter School says, “On average, we reflect the demographics of the city of Hillsboro in race and income level.” But that’s not true, according to the Oregon Department of Education’s school report card data.
Only 6 percent of City View students are economically disadvantaged, the data says. The next-lowest is Jackson Elementary School at 16 percent, and schools like Mooberry andLincoln Street elementary schools have over 95 percent poverty rates.
The poverty rate across Hillsboro, according to the United States Census Bureau, was 11.8 percent from 2007 to 2011.
The school is another example of a statewide trend for charters. The Oregonian’s Betsy Hammond reported last month that Oregon’s least diverse elementary schools are all charters. In Hillsboro, only Jackson has fewer English Language Learners than City View, and only two schools – Patterson and North Plains elementary schools – have a higher percentage of white students. City View and Jackson are both 70 percent white, while the district average is 49 percent.
read the above paragraph- half the students are not white, which means illegal aliens. "least diverse" means fewer mexicans and foriegn students
Proponents of charter schools say they give families another choice apart from default public school systems. City View, which serves kindergarten through eighth grade, is indeed open to everyone through a lottery system, but transportation and hot lunch is not provided. So parents who can’t arrange to get their kids to school without a school bus, or who can’t provide lunch for their children every day, aren’t left with much of a choice.
“A lot of it has to do with the lottery system, as well,” said City View Office Specialist Becky Mills. “We’re capped at 216 students…We don’t have a high turnover rate with our students, so you either have to be a sibling of a current student, or it’s luck of the draw.”
The school’s waiting list was at 288 people last month, City View Board President Larry Thompson said at an Oct. 22 Hillsboro School Board meeting. Preferential treatment is given to siblings of current students.
“A lot of times, charter schools have to go wherever they can find the space,” Mills said. The school is currently housed within Alliance Bible Church on Southeast Bentley Street, which is not served by a district school bus line.
City View scored a “Level 3” on its state report card, meaning it was between the 16th and 44th percentiles statewide. However, it also was rated “below average” compared to schools with similar demographics. The ratings are based on performance on state test scores and the changes in those scores from year to year.
Erik Seligman, one of the new members on the district school board, has been a proponent of charter schools and sparked a debate at a meeting earlier this year when he attempted to bring a resolution that would welcome more charter school applications. The resolution never came to a vote.
-- Luke Hammill
