North Star Students Urged To Switch

North Star Elementary will be filled beyond capacity when school starts next week, and school officials are urging parents to consider nearby Double Eagle Elementary.

North Star, north of Paseo del Norte on Ventura, was built for 663 students and now has projected enrollment of 747 – or 84 too many.

Albuquerque Public Schools Chief Operations Officer Brad Winter said the school has been over-capacity in the past, so the district was braced for about 705 students. But enrollment is now exceeding their expectations, and Winter said the school will be crowded.

That could prompt a future shift in the attendance boundaries of North Star and Double Eagle, but not this year.

North Star Principal Stephanie Fascitelli said the school will serve all the students, but class sizes will reach the legal maximum of 22 to 26 students, depending on grade level.

Also, the school may use its music room as a classroom and have the music teacher travel around the school with a cart. Classes might also be held in the library or other spaces.

Meanwhile, Double Eagle Elementary is under-enrolled, with 505 students in a school built for 650. The school, north of Paseo del Norte on Lowell, has room at all grade levels. It particularly has ample space for kindergartners, second-graders and fourth-graders.

Diane Kerschen, APS associate superintendent for elementary schools, said she wants parents to know Double Eagle is also high-performing.

“I can’t stress enough how close they are in test scores,” Kerschen said. “We pulled their test scores, and they’re within points of each other.”

Specifically, 88.3 percent of North Star students were proficient in reading last year, compared to 87.6 percent at Double Eagle. In math, North Star’s proficiency rate is 84.9 percent, compared to 82.7 at Double Eagle.

The schools are less than three miles apart, and bus service will be provided to families who decide to enroll at Double Eagle. Parents interested in transferring can call the front office at either school to begin the process.

Winter said it is hard to say why the school is more crowded this year. More families may be sharing homes with other families as a result of the economy, and more private school students may be returning to public schools, he said.

While the lackluster economy could be driving some changes, signs of recovery could be driving others. Winter said there are developments in the North Star area where new homes are starting to be built.

North Star, Double Eagle and nearby Dennis Chavez Elementary also have a history of families who do not live in the attendance boundaries fraudulently registering their children. The three principals had required parents to provide additional proof of identity and residence, until the practice came to light last year and was stopped because it was inconsistent with practices in other parts of APS.

APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said it would not be a good use of the district’s time to comb through North Star’s enrollment for fraudulently enrolled families.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal