{"id":27766,"date":"2018-02-09T03:58:11","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T11:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=27766"},"modified":"2018-02-07T20:24:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T04:24:55","slug":"growing-pains-at-kdhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/02\/09\/growing-pains-at-kdhs\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing pains at KDHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

King David High School has a wait pool for its Grade 8 program. (photo from facebook.com\/kdhsvancouver<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

King David High School has more applicants for Grade 8 this fall than they have spaces available, and some parents are upset with the way the school is handling the matter.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 28, parents of 52 potential Grade 8 students received a message that their children had been accepted \u2013 and that $1,000 was required by Jan. 31 to confirm acceptance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe normal course is that King David and the independent and mini schools all release about the same time their acceptance letters,\u201d said a parent whose child was accepted. \u201cThey\u2019ll send out the first acceptance letters and then parents will either accept or not and then they\u2019ll send out the second set a day or two later. That way they don\u2019t really have a wait list and the process is relatively painless and takes place over a few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parent requested anonymity for fear that speaking out could affect their child\u2019s future at the school and the Independent agreed to withhold the name.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat King David has done suddenly is say we\u2019re moving our process up about a month and to hold that spot now you need another thousand dollars, nonrefundable,\u201d the parent said. The $1,000 deposit is on top of a $500 application fee, which increased this year from $100. Many families apply to more than one school, some of them independent and some of them Vancouver School Board specialty schools, such as mini schools, international baccalaureate or outdoor education programs. Those schools mostly send out acceptance letters in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to fundraise, that\u2019s one thing,\u201d said the parent. \u201cBut this seems to be a negative option fundraising scheme. They didn\u2019t tell the families that they were going to do this when they applied originally and gave their deposit of $500. They didn\u2019t tell them they were going to change the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Russ Klein, King David\u2019s head of school, said the intention was to alleviate stress for the families with children who are not among the 52 who received acceptance letters. He contests the idea that the $1,000 is to \u201chold the position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not thinking of it as holding,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re thinking of it as accepting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recognizes that many families hedge their bets by applying to several schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are frustrated, which I can understand, because they\u2019re going to need to pay a deposit. That\u2019s where they\u2019re using the language \u2018hold the spot.\u2019 But we have families out there who are on our wait pool who are desperate to get into King David because they are not applying anywhere else. They are very frustrated at some of their peers who are holding spots that they don\u2019t want,\u201d said Klein. \u201cWe\u2019re not their first choice. They\u2019d rather get into another school and we don\u2019t judge that. We\u2019d just like the students who would like to be here to get the opportunity to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school is using the term \u201cwait pool\u201d as opposed to \u201cwait list\u201d because it does not reflect an order.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat schools are really trying to do is pick the best cohort for their group,\u201d he said. \u201cIf, for example, a male student leaves and you\u2019re trying to balance by gender, then we would try to get another male student in.\u201d A wait pool implies that learning needs, particular talents and other factors that applicants bring to the cohort are weighed, rather than ranking applicants numerically.<\/p>\n

Klein acknowledged that the process is new and has been difficult, because the school has never had so many applicants, a factor due simply to the coincidence of a population bubble in the community. Looking at this year\u2019s Grade 6 classes at Jewish elementary schools and in the community, he said, King David expects far fewer Grade 8 applications next year. This year\u2019s Grade 8 cohort has just 35 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our first time through this type of challenge and we are learning a lot,\u201d he said. The school has 26 regular Grade 8 positions and 26 accelerated positions, in which Grade 8 students complete Math 8, Science 8, Math 9 and Science 9 in a single year.<\/p>\n

The school isn\u2019t releasing exact numbers of how many students are in the wait pool, saying only that it is \u201cmore than 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, the school now has well over 200 students, said Klein, and, while that presents growing pains, he hopes the demand indicates to the community that the school is successful, and said KDHS may seek to expand in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

King David High School has a wait pool for its Grade 8 program. (photo from facebook.com\/kdhsvancouver) King David High School has more applicants for Grade 8 this fall than they have spaces available, and some parents are upset with the way the school is handling the matter. On Jan. 28, parents of 52 potential Grade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3076,1559,1047,7807],"class_list":["post-27766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-education","tag-kdhs","tag-king-david-high-school","tag-russ-klein"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}