Parents petition to make Love a magnet

Heights group says status will give school chance to attract pupils from local area

A group of Heights parents are petitioning the Houston Independent School District to gain magnet status for Love Elementary School. They say the school, a small campus of less than 500 pupils located near 13th Street and Shepherd, is caught in a rut, encouraging the flight of talented pupils and financial resources, disenfranchising pupils zoned to the school and widening a socioeconomic gap between the lower and higher income residents of the Heights.

“Love Elementary is lacking socioeconomic diversity, neighborhood support and necessary funding,” said parent Ebru Erdini. “Magnet status will give a chance for this school to attract more students from the neighborhood.”

Erdini, a parent of a Love elementary pupil, started the petition with her neighbor Barbara Carroll.

Carroll does not have children in the school, but is a concerned neighborhood resident.

The women said they have seen a widening gap between Love pupils and those attending neighboring schools like Harvard Elementary, a magnet school located five miles away.

Erdini points to a recent fundraiser at both schools as

evidence of the socioeconomic disparage between the two schools.

According to the petition, Harvard, located five miles from Love, is comprised of 41 percent Hispanic pupils and 45 percent white pupils. Of those, 21 percent are considered economically disadvantaged. The Harvard PTA was able to raise $100,000 for school improvement projects.

Love, with 89 percent of the pupils considered economically disadvantaged, and 88 percent Hispanic pupils and seven percent white, was only able to raise $5,000.

Erdini said that the demographics of Love do not reflect the surrounding zoned homes, evidence that magnet programs at schools like Harvard are drawing away pupils and funds.

“Magnet status will give a chance for this school to attract more students from the neighborhood,” Erdini said.

“Currently zoned neighborhood houses have developed way above city average and many upper mid-income families with small children moved in.

“These parents are currently either competing for other magnet schools which are in the close vicinity or paying for private schools because Love Elementary cannot offer neither magnet nor private school opportunities.

“I believe magnet status will answer an ever increasing demand of magnet schools and pull more students into HISD from private schools.”

With three school-aged children herself, Erdini said she knows parents in the Heights overlook Love because it lacks magnet status.

She did with her oldest child, whom she sent to Harvard. When her youngest child with special needs was enrolled in Love’s Preschoolers Achieving Learning Skills program this year, her perception shifted.

She said he was like a different child in just two weeks, and now Erdini is considering sending her middle child to Love next year because of the positive experience.

“I believe this school needs the support of HISD and of course from the neighborhood,” Erdini said.

The concept of magnet schools began in the 1960s as a way to encourage desegregation and improvement in educational opportunities in the public education arena, according to Magnet Schools of America.

The idea was that if extra resources were put toward targeted programs, such as an emphasis on arts, or an emphasis on science and technology, students and parents could then “choose” their school.

“If we take advantage of a student’s interest and aptitude, that student will do better in subjects unrelated to his/her reasons for choosing the school. That choice itself will result in improved satisfaction that translates into better achievement,” said MSA founder Donald Waldrip on magnet.edu.

The MSA holds that these hopes of Waldrip were spot on, and educators and parents seem to agree.

Christina Boardman, the PTO president at Love, said magnet schools draw in great students and opportunities to their campuses. But since Love is in such close proximity to other magnet schools, the draw to schools like Harvard detract significantly from Love. Boardman said that Love’s state testing scores are significantly lower than the surrounding schools. She said with such a large population of students coming from homes where English isn’t their first language, and without the same access to computers, books and after school programs as those attending neighboring magnet schools it is no wonder they are falling behind.

“It’s because of budget,” she said. “We don’t have the funding, and we need the opportunity.”

The petition organizers are seeking 500 signatures which they plan to present to HISD board members before the 2017 school year begins.

HISD was unable to provide any financial insight regarding how much additional funding magnet status might bring to a school like Love by press time, but district spokesperson Ashley Anthony released this statement:

“New magnet programs require approval from the HISD Board of Education. Community input is an important component of this process established by the board.

“Any school that submits an application for magnet program consideration will be reviewed thoroughly and receive all due consideration.”

For more information on the petition, visit www. change.org/p/houston-independent-school-distictmagnet-for-love-elementary