Courtyards with lush greenery. A high-tech fitness center. Research facilities. Top-notch instructors. Unlimited computer use.

This could be an advertisement for an expensive private college.

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But what sounds like an institution of higher learning is really one of RISD’s new elementary magnet schools, smack in the middle of Richardson’s telecommunications corridor.

“These schools offer what private schools have, but the cost is free,” says RISD assistant superintendent Ted Moulton.

Where Are We Going?

Not too many people would argue with the concept of a “free” private school. The more relevant question is: What benefit do magnet schools provide to the students who aren’t enrolled in them?

In taking one of its first steps toward addressing the overcrowding issues affecting our neighborhood schools, RISD last spring decided to make a big investment — financially and educationally — in the magnet school concept.

The magnets’ district-wide purpose is simply stated: reduce overcrowding, attract students back to remaining neighborhood schools, and improve the racial balance and overall performance of RISD schools.

After one year of experimentation, is RISD on the road to reaching this goal?

And there’s another, bigger issue with magnets: Not every student can attend one.

The district established magnets primarily to relieve overcrowding at schools with large numbers of “transient” students, so attendance is limited primarily to children living in the apartment-saturated areas of our neighborhood.

So what good does this do for the remaining neighborhood children?

How the Numbers Grew

For decades, RISD has been regarded as one of the state’s best. Ten years ago, the U.S. Department of Education included the district, of which more than half is in the City of Dallas, in a report titled, “America’s 25 Best School Systems.”

Demographics showed the population to be mostly white, middle-class homeowners.

Things began to change after 1988, when a new federal law outlawed adults-only housing. Thousands of childless apartments units rapidly filled with families, many of whom were low-income and included non-English speaking refugee and immigrant students.

Because virtually all of the Coit-Spring Valley-area and Lake Highlands-area apartments were built for adults only, the school district didn’t consider their population when planning for growth.

Apartments became full of families with children, and so did the schools.

School officials and parents began to wonder how they were going to ease overcrowding and balance ethnicity at the same time.

Magnet schools seem to be the answer.

The school board voted last November to open two schools — the Math, Science and Technology magnet and the Classical magnet.

Each magnet has an enrollment of about 600. About 200 of those live in the designated apartment zones who attended Aikin, Skyview and Dover Elementary. The rest are volunteers from 19 other schools who are chosen through a lottery.

Applications for each school outnumbered by several hundred the spots available at each campus, and more than 90 percent of the students have signed up to return, Moulton says.

“This is something new on the cutting edge that people want to be a part of,” Moulton says.

While the new magnets have eased overcrowding at several Lake Highlands elementary schools, they have also offered parents something RISD Superintendent Carolyn Bukhair says she never had as a mother — choice.

“I would have liked to have had a choice of where to send my children — that’s what these schools offer,” Bukhair says.

Setting the Standard

Magnets offer more than a solution to overcrowding, school officials say. They offer a way to improve the performance of all schools and set the standard for future educators.

“We’re focusing our resources and energy to lead the pack and set the standard,” says Mike Freeman, a Richardson High School teacher on leave to head the district’s magnet education program.

“That standard will affect the performance of all schools.”

The bottom line, one magnet school elementary principal says, is that if we don’t make a school attractive, why should we expect parents to bus their children in order to get there.

“All our neighborhood schools provide an excellent education, but we shouldn’t have to put our children on a bus if there are no enrichment opportunities there,” says Dr. Sue Francis, Hamilton Park Pacesetter Elementary’s principal.

Hamilton Park Pacesetter was the first RISD magnet, opened 20 years ago to address a desegregation order. Located at 8301 Towns, the school began as a high school but now serves students in grades K-6. Special features include a relatively low student/staff ratio of 20 to 1, state-of-the art computer equipment, and a gifted education program for all students.

Today, there’s a waiting list to enroll in Hamilton Park because of the school’s high-quality education and teachers, Francis says.

“We try to teach students based on their individuality,” Francis says.

“We believe that all children are gifted — we just try to find the gift and nurture it.”

As the only elementary magnet open to all students in the district, Hamilton Park has an average enrollment of 675. Half the population is from the predominately African-American neighborhood surrounding the school. The remaining students, mostly white and Asian, applied to attend the school, Francis says.

The Arts Magnet

The Arts, Law and Science Magnet at Richardson High opened in 1987 in an effort to ease overcrowding at Berkner High School, says program coordinator Bill Witton.

The magnet, which Witton describes as a “school within a school” because two-hour magnet courses are interspersed with regular classes at Richardson High, has grown from about 40 students to 500.

Students from throughout the district may apply and must show an interest in one of five areas: Law, Science, Communications, Theater, Visual Arts or International Studies.

The student must have passed all classes and shown good citizenship as a 9th-grader. Auditions are held for the Theater Program, and students must have an average of 83 or above in English or History to qualify for the Law Program and an 80 or above for the Science Program.

“The program gives students a chance to try a career on for size and decide whether that’s what they want to pursue,” Witton says.

“It’s good for a student who is thinking and planning ahead more than the average student is.”

The success of these magnets is proof that the district is “on the right track” by opening two new elementary magnets and planning for more, Moulton says.

The Math, Science and Technology school is one of two elementary magnets created in part to reduce overcrowding at Aikin, Dover and Skyview elementary schools. The Classical Magnet, located at 701 Beltline Road, focuses on Latin and the humanities.

“The magnet option was available to us, and it’s something we’ve had success with,” Moulton says.

On the Right Track

Last spring, RISD took an initial step toward addressing overcrowding, attracting back neighborhood students, and improving the racial balance and overall performance of schools with the two new elementary magnets, Freeman says.

Principal Joyce Bowman says Aikin’s enrollment dropped from 800 to 560 during the 1995-1996 school year. Skyview Elementary’s enrollment dropped from 730 students to 470.

“The magnets have allowed teachers (at Aikin) to be able to give more time to the individual needs of the kids,” Bowman says.

This year, Skyview served lunch around noon instead of from 10:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m., which freed up the lunchroom for use as an auditorium. Also, six of the 12 portable classrooms have been removed from the campus.

“Overall, it’s less stressful,” Bowman says.

“We served a population that brought with it some significant needs, and that population has decreased and allowed for more fluctuation in programming,” Bowman says.

The students who transferred to the two new magnets are missed, Bowman says.

“They’ll always be a part of Aikin — it’s just unfortunate that our numbers got so large.”

From a parent’s standpoint, the magnet program is a great success.

Aikin is getting back to more of a “neighborhood school”, says Lake Highlands resident Sue Fosheim, and that’s important to families looking to buy homes in Lake Highlands.

“Having a good school keeps property values up and crime away,” Fosheim says.

“We both win — they get a good education, and so do we.”

What the Schools Have to Offer

While the magnet schools offer relief from overcrowding, they also offer a unique education that is “in the best interest of the students’ futures,” says John Kalny, who was principal at Skyview Elementary, and now heads the new Math, Science and Technology magnet.

Classes at the magnets cover much of what is taught at the district’s other elementaries, but special programs are integrated into the curriculum.

The Math, Science and Technology magnet covers those fields with an emphasis on environmental science. The Classical magnet emphasizes the basics. Students learn Latin and wear uniforms.

Kalny says there was a definite need for a school that emphasizes environmental science.

“This is important because if we don’t have an environment, we don’t live — period,” Kalny says.

The school has multi-media computers for all grades, a high-tech fitness center where students participate in cardiovascular activities, and an outdoor atrium that has been converted into a mini-ecosystem to conduct experiments, Kalny says.

Housed in a former office building at 707 E. Arapaho, the school sits across the street from Alcatel Alsthom, a maker of telecommunications equipment, and MCI Communications Corp. is nearby. Both companies are school corporate sponsors and offer volunteer mentors to the magnet’s students.

The programs integrated support the environmental science theme, Kalny says. For example, if students are learning about the rain forest, they will play instruments from the area in their music class.

The children learn to solve problems and become independent thinkers during a year-long project in which they are required to find a solution to one of the 10 major environmental issues.

“If we don’t begin to look at creative ways to solve the problems that we have created in our environment, then we will begin to die out,” Kalny says.

“It would be great if some of our students would be the ones to solve the problems.”

Carla Bremer, principal at the Classical magnet, says her school emphasizes skills that students need to be successful.

Bremer says students learn study and research skills. Citizenship is stressed and there is a strong student government program at every grade level, including kindergarten, she says.

Reading and writing strategies that help children become independent learners and thinkers are taught, and the Latin program for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders is the only one of its kind in the district. Students are expected to wear uniforms, which Bremer says creates a “family atmosphere” where the focus is on education.

“There may have been parents who had reservations about the school before, but we’re getting some very positive feedback,” Bremer says.

Both principals say their first year was a success, partly because of the volunteer support of the parents, a highly trained staff and an enthusiastic student body.

Randi Herrity, whose son, Michael Hamel, finished the sixth-grade at the MST magnet, says she was initially bothered when she learned her son would have to transfer because they lived in the apartment-heavy attendance zone north of LBJ.

“I didn’t scream much, though, when I learned about the school’s curriculum,” Herrity says.

An average student while at Skyview, Herrity says her son “jumped right in” and made the A/B honor roll at the new magnet.

“He loves it — his attitude improved 100 percent, and he became more involved,” Herrity says.

“Magnets are a great opportunity for children to learn using the newest technology.”

The Future of Magnets In RISD

While the enrollment at Skyview and Aikin has declined, most other neighborhood schools still suffer from overcrowded classrooms.

According to district projections, half the district’s 38 elementary schools are overcrowded, and the district is expected to grow by 5,768 students — or 17 percent — in the next 10 years. Almost all the growth is expected to come from non-English-speaking families with large numbers of children per apartment.

After nearly two years of emotional debate about how to balance enrollment and ethnic diversity, RISD trustees in March unanimously voted to approve a plan expected to cost $86-$118 million. The plan includes construction of two neighborhood schools — another magnet elementary school and possibly a junior high as a magnet.

With the Classical and MST schools, and the projected new elementary in Lake Highlands, RISD will have five magnets, which raises the question of whether the district will become saturated with magnets and lose their appeal.

“We’re looking at how many magnets you can have and still get students from the neighborhood to go there,” Bukhair says.

“And if you have too many magnets, are we draining the neighborhood schools. I don’t have all the answers yet — we’ll study that carefully.”