Miami School District

Posted: December 10th, 2013

The Miami school district recently announced the school boundaries will be redrawn.  The unplanned increase of student enrollment requires that school officials review the school boundaries.  The school district will use a third party of experts to perform the redrawing the school boundaries before the next school year.  Unfortunately, when school boundaries are redrawn, many individuals will be uneasy about the changes.  Because the news about the over-crowding and school boundaries is in review, parents are voicing their concerns for the school boundaries plan.  The following are the key objections to the new plan:  Quality of education, increased travel time, crossing economic and cultural boundaries, property values, and social impacts on children.  A review of the plan will address all stakeholders for each objection.
Teacher to student ratio is a key measurement for quality of education (Maasoumi, 2005).  As class size increases, student attention from the teacher reduces (Blatchford, 2003).  If a teacher spends equal amount of time with each student in her class in a single day, a class size increase would reduce the amount of time spent with each student.  A school district must be mindful of the teacher to student ratio when budgeting and planning for a fiscal year.  Because the announcement by the Miami school district, many parents are apprehensive of the redraw of the boundaries.  Many students currently attending school may need to be bus to another school.  The other school may not be academically as strong as the present school.  School district officials and Miami city are the key stakeholders as it relates to the quality of education.  Another key stakeholder is the students.  The students are the individuals receiving the results of the redraw of boundaries.  Objections to the redraw are from the parent of students impacted by the redraw school boundaries.  As a means to correct the other school, the school district can replicate the current curriculum of the present school and apply the curriculum to the lower performing school.  In addition, the teachers at the other school will test for aptitude in hopes to align and mirror the present school.
The negotiation style of integrating, collaborating, and problem-solving will help approaching and addressing the quality of education concerns.  The following are the stakeholders for quality of education:  Students, parents, school district officials, school officials, and city officials (politicians).  Recognizing the implications for all parties, the negotiation style will have a “high” concern for self and a “high” concern for others.  The redraw of boundaries will require total adherence to the new boundaries.  Exceptions will require a collaborative discussion to review the exception by the school and school district.  Ethics will play a key role to minimize and eliminate any favoritism.
The redraw of the school boundaries will increase the travel time for students to attend school.  In Miami, the school district begins school at 7:45a.m.  Currently, parents are responsible for dropping off the child and picking up the child.  School buses are available, but only 50% of the students reside near bus pick up areas.  As a result of the new redraw of the boundaries, the school buses are available for 70% of the students because of the new bus pick up proximities.  Only 30% of the parents will be driving the child to the other school.
To the stakeholders, the immediate concern is the parents adjusting travel times and morning schedules to accommodate drop off and work.  Adjusting the school starting time from 7:45 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. will allow sufficient time for parents to make the extra commute.  The school dismissal time will extend by 15 minutes because of the later start.  The ideal negotiation style to negotiate with the stakeholders is obliging and accommodating negotiation style.
Composed of mostly Hispanic and Latin Americans is the mixture of culture in Miami (City of Miami, 2000).  The mixture of culture also composes a mixture of economic variances.  The variances are minor from borough to borough within the City of Miami.  The redraw of the boundaries do not intersect the bottom five boroughs.  The bottom five boroughs are the lowest five household median.  Because the growth of the enrollment is coming from the top five boroughs (top five highest household median), the redraw boundaries are exclusive to the higher economic areas.
The key stakeholders are parents, students, and City of Miami.  The City of Miami will sponsor awareness programs to ease the cultural boundaries concerns.  The awareness programs help educate and promote cross-cultural interactions.  The City of Miami is a key stakeholder because minimizing cultural disputes is in the city’s best interest.  Developing cultural disputes will negatively reflect on the city.  The ideal negotiation style to assist with this particular negotiation with the stakeholders is integrating, collaborating, and problem-solving negotiation style.  This style is effective for this scenario because of the high concern for self and the high concern for others.
Concerns about property values can occur because of the redraw of boundaries.  Influences to property values occur depending on the quality of the school (Jud, 1981).  A positive influence occurs when the quality of school is high.  A negative influence occurs when the quality of school is low.  The stakeholders for this concern are the City of Miami and the parents of the redraw of boundaries.  Because efforts will be made to elevate the quality of the other school, the negative influence to property value will not occur.  The parents have a legitimate concern because the school is farther away that may affect the property value.  In addition, the City of Miami will collect less property if the property value decreases.  Plans and budgets are in place to provide additional classrooms at the present school.  At the completion of the build out, the City of Miami and the school district will redraw the boundaries.  The negotiation style to aid in the negotiation is integrating, collaborating, and problem-solving negotiation style.  This style is effective for this scenario because of the high concern for self and the high concern for others.
Social impacts to children are a concern for the parents and the City of Miami.  The diverse cultures of Miami are split into boroughs.  The parents raise concerns about children attending the other school with a larger population of another culture.  The concerns range from bullying to gang violence.  Similarly in relations to cultural boundaries, the City of Miami will sponsor awareness programs.  The awareness programs will focus on cultural differences and social diversity.  The parents and the City of Miami are the stakeholders as it relates to this concern.  The City of Miami interests are to minimize tensions at school and outside of school (after-school program) by committing to several awareness programs throughout the school year.  The negotiation style most effective for this negotiation with the stakeholders is integrating, collaborating, and problem-solving negotiation style.
Concerns about the redraw of the boundaries resonate from different stakeholders.  Stakeholders differ from concern to concern.  The common negotiation style is integrating, collaborating, and problem-solving.  The impetus behind the common style is the requirement to address the high concerns for the other party and high concerns for self.  The City of Miami has a high occurrence of being a stakeholder.  As the city, implications and negative press for the City of Miami is a key element the city wants to avoid.  Allocating budget and planning to expand the present school is the best interest of the City of Miami and the school district.  Ironically, the students are a stakeholder for many of the concerns.  Perhaps many of the issues can be addressable by keeping the students best interest in mind instead of political or financial drivers.

References
Maasoumi, E., Millimet, D., & Rangaprasad, V. (2005). Class Size and Educational Policy: Who Benefits from Smaller Classes?. Econometric Reviews, 24(4), 333-368. Retrieved from EconLit with Full Text database.
Blatchford, P., Bassett, P., Goldstein, H., & Martin, C. (2003). Are class size differences related to pupils’ educational progress and classroom processes? findings from the institute of education class size study of children aged 5-7 years. British Educational Research Journal, 29(5), 709. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.
City of Miami.  (2000).  Census information.  Retrieved on October 14, 2010 from http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/planning/pages/services/Census.asp
Jud, G., & Watts, J. (1981). Schools and housing Values. Land Economics, 57(3), 459. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database.