Cooper/Pathfinder "Clarifying" Remarks "Clarified"
Peter Daniels tried to undo the mess Raj created last week with his impromptu "clarifying" remarks on the Cooper/Pathfinder recommendation. (see Cooper/Pathfinder Confusion)
The result would be funny if it wasn't such a serious issue affecting many teachers, staff and families. The PI article, West Seattle schools 'merger' letters set, gives us these words of wisdom:
So, it sounds like we have an informal merger, which is really more of an integration with blending. Clear?
The district is promising letters home to parents next week to "clarify" this further. I assume this is the same letter that was promised, but never delivered, this week. It must be difficult to write a letter that can further clarify the already clarified clarification of Raj's recommendation.
The result would be funny if it wasn't such a serious issue affecting many teachers, staff and families. The PI article, West Seattle schools 'merger' letters set, gives us these words of wisdom:
"No formal merger is planned"
"the two schools would have to work together to find common ground between the two programs and integrate them"
"see it [Pathfinder] adapt and blend elements from Cooper's traditional K-5 program"
"the resulting school at the Cooper site would still be an alternative K-8 school"
So, it sounds like we have an informal merger, which is really more of an integration with blending. Clear?
The district is promising letters home to parents next week to "clarify" this further. I assume this is the same letter that was promised, but never delivered, this week. It must be difficult to write a letter that can further clarify the already clarified clarification of Raj's recommendation.
Comments
I think Charlie has mentioned this in the past but Raj is coming up for a performance review. The Board needs to hear about how people feel especially since this communication came straight from Raj. I think he was in his nice guy mode and made things worse. My read on today's article is that the district is trying to artfully find a way to have Pathfinder take over the building while incorporating a very different population with different needs.
The important points, I believe, are these:
1) Pathfinder at Cooper will NOT have a reference area. It will not be a neighborhood school and no one new students seeking a traditional experience will enroll there.
2) There is no way that Pathfinder will be able to quickly assimilate all of the Cooper students and teachers into their culture. As a result, the Pathfinder culture will be altered by the introduction of the Cooper students and teachers.
3) There are some Cooper students with academic needs that Pathfinder has never seen, or has never seen in these numbers. Pathfinder will be altered as it addresses these students and their needs.
4) Just being in a different space will alter Pathfinder.
5) The presence of the Cooper students and teachers, the new space, and the change will alter the sort of families who enroll their children at Pathfinder after this.
6) There will be no legacy Cooper students in the kindergarten classes and, as the years go by, the legacy Cooper students will fade away. Within a few years they will all either be gone or impossible to identify.
Finally, the Superintendent is not a good communicator - he's not even an adequate communicator. It is difficult to determine what he said and impossible to determine what he meant by what he said. We can be pretty sure that whatever he said, he didn't mean it. It is fruitless to try to derive meaning from most of the drivel he spouts.
Perhaps Peter Daniels can smooth this horrible misstatement into nothing more than a recognition that Pathfinder at Cooper will be different from Pathfinder at Genesee Hill. This is as it must be following a change of place, a large influx of new students, and the introduction of so many FRE, bilingual, and special education students.
However, I disagree with almost everything else the anonymous Pathfinder parent said.
This proposal, if it goes through, will likely alter the Pathfinder program beyond recognition, with changes in staffing, focus, and approach to education. Not a "win" for Pathfinder according to teachers, staff and the principal.