Interview #2: Laura
Laura is a former John Adams student, but chose to send her only son to Clay. They live out of the district (walking distance from Riley High School), but chose Clay specifically for their Magnet program. Her decision had a lot to do with the open houses that are held at the Century Center around November. This is where she gained all of her knowledge about what each school has to offer. “It helps a lot.” Her son plays a lot of instruments, so she wanted to give him the best opportunity to satisfy his hobby. Her son She was very active in the decision making process and is still active throughout his high school journey. For Laura, her son’s friends had no impact on the school that she wanted to send her child to at all. Because she lives out of district, and her child has to arrive at school early before bus transportation arrives, she has to drive her son to school every morning because she is very satisfied with the magnet program. “They focus on him, and have tons of opportunities.” With this being said, she only knows a few parents who feel so strongly about the magnet programs, but none at clay. After reviewing the interview, although she didn’t say specifically, it seemed that this is a result of not talking about it with Clay parents and not a result of dissatisfaction in other parents (but this is just an assumption that we didn’t address during the interview).
Laura’s other main reason for bringing her son to Clay was because of Principal Eid. She had him as a teacher when she was in school and had only stellar remarks about him.
- “Parents that went to John Adams that were his students, I know they’re going to follow him wherever he goes to, especially now that he’s the principal”
- “every kid loves him”
- “hes very tough, but everybody likes him”
The last point she touched on was the lack of Hispanic community at Clay relative to Adams. “It is a known thing in Hispanic community that most Hispanics go to Adams, unless kids are really focused on their kids branch they want to study, just because Adams is prioritized as Hispanic high school.” She says that regardless of where students live, much of the Hispanic community will send their kids to Adams, even all the way from the west side of town, because they are categorized for having a better Hispanic presence. Laura mentions that building a more Hispanic presence at Clay, especially with more Hispanic teachers, would attract more people in her Hispanic community, but feels that Clay is not doing anything to attract these students which is limiting their enrollment.