Background: On October 10, 2024 the “Student Enrollment and School Assignment Transition Plan for 2025-2026” was presented to the Mill Valley School District Board for consideration. The School Board has been asked to approve the proposal at the November 14, 2024 Board Meeting. The most significant change being considered is removing proximity as a factor in the enrollment process and using a random, unbiased lottery system to place students based on spaces available. The proposal would also replace the waitlist with a new intradistrict transfer process and ask families to rank all five elementary schools instead of two. The full proposal is available to review on the MVSD Website. This petition opposes the interim plan.

Dear Dr. Kaufman and the Mill Valley School Board of Trustees,

We are parents of children who currently attend the Mill Valley School District or are considering enrollment there. We greatly appreciate the efforts being made to revise the current enrollment process. We know there are no easy answers and these are tough issues to address.

We want to express our concern that the “Student Enrollment and School Assignment Transition Plan for 2025-2026” will increase community confusion and stress around the enrollment process without providing meaningful improvements. We agree with many of the concerns that the Board raised at the October 10, 2024 Board Meeting. We ask the Board to consider a simpler and more effective option: providing enough classrooms at the schools with the highest demand.

During the October 10, 2024 Board Meeting, the Superintendent said “we are planning on defining capacity at Tam Valley and Edna Maguire as 3 primary classes.” We ask for the Superintendent to confirm the District’s intent to have 3 classrooms per grade at each primary level (kindergarten and first grade) at Tam Valley and Edna Maguire for the 25-26 school year. Providing this transparency now would be the most effective way to reduce community anxiety on this issue.

According to the District, the interim proposal would not increase the total percentage of students who get placed at one of their preferred schools (currently reported to be 90%). For the 24-25 school year, 100% of families who chose Edna Maguire and Strawberry Point were placed in their preferred schools. Nearly 94% of families who chose Old Mill and 93.3% of families who chose Park received their preferred placement. Only 64% of families who selected Tam Valley were placed at Tam Valley. Increasing the lower school capacity at Tam Valley would be a more effective way to increase the percentage of families who are placed there as a preferred choice without impacting the success rate at the other schools.

The interim proposal will increase uncertainty and stress for new parents – not just at Tam Valley but across all five elementary schools. Educating parents on the details of the interim proposal and fielding their concerns will waste valuable resources that could better be focused on creating a long-term plan. This energy could be put to better use for the District.

We Support:

• Conducting a demographic study to make data-informed decisions
• Continuing to prioritize keeping siblings together, district placement needs and parent choice
• Asking parents to rank all five elementary schools
• Reducing stress and uncertainty around the current process
• Attempting to find a more equitable way to place kids
• Ensuring there are enough primary level classes to accommodate preferred school choices and smaller classes sizes

We Believe:

• Parent choice is not a proxy for proximity and the interim process runs the risk of creating a series of unintended consequences that would disrupt student placement across all five elementary schools
• Biking and walking to school is a priority not only for those families but for the greater community
• Removing proximity as a factor will increase the number of families who need to make inconvenient commutes across Mill Valley, which will increase traffic congestion for all and have negative environmental impacts
• At a time when the Board is signaling an interest in considering attendance zones with a geographic area, it seems counter to remove proximity as an enrollment factor

We Ask: 

• Do not approve the “Student Enrollment and School Assignment Transition Plan for 2025-2026”. Keep the current process for the 25-26 school year and focus all efforts on revising the process for 26-27 and beyond
• Address our community’s primary concerns in school assignment: 
  • Allocate enough classrooms per grade at the sites with the highest community demand: e.g. add a 3rd first grade class at Tam Valley for the 25-26 school year
  • Restore small primary level class sizes (<23 students) as the norm in this district
  • Retain and support our incredible teachers
  • Keep neighborhood communities together
• If you must create an interim process:
  
  • Do not remove proximity as a factor
  • Only include revisions that are simple, clear and do not significantly change the process (e.g. ranking all five schools vs. two schools makes sense and is not disruptive)
• Invite parents and prospective parents to provide feedback and engage in the long-term policy development process to ensure school assignment is equitable, community informed, and has the desired outcomes

Many of us moved here, live here, and thrive here because of the excellent, award-deserving, award-winning schools in the Mill Valley School District. We know the success of this district is the result of our dedicated, hardworking, and high-quality teachers, staff, Board, and administrators.

Additionally, many families and community members deeply value the opportunity to grow our families in our local communities, which includes walking or riding bikes to and from school and raising our children together as neighbors and friends that will learn and grow together over the years within a smaller community.  

Thank you for taking the time to hear our perspective and for your commitment to public service. We know that your job is not an easy one and that you dedicate significant time  to make our school district great. We deeply appreciate that.  

We are a motivated group of parents who hope to work with you in support of finding a collaborative solution on these important issues. We look forward to hearing a response from you soon and welcome a public dialogue as a community if needed.

Sincerely,

Mill Valley Parents